


r 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf -IE>-C) 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



The Reformation in Sweden 



ITS RISE, PROGRESS, AND CRISIS 
AND ITS TRIUMPH UNDER 
CHARLES IX. 




C. M. BUTLER, D.D. 

Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Divinity School of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church, Philadelphia 




New York 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY 

9OO BROADWAY, COR. 20th STREET 



A * 



Copyright, 1883, 
By Anson D. F. Randolph & Company. 



st. johnland printed by 

stereotype foundry, edward o. jenkins, 

suffolk co., n. y. 20 north william st., n. y. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

SWEDEN FROM THE TREATY OF CALMAR, 1 398, TO THE 

INVASION OF CHRISTIAN II. OF DENMARK, I52O ... I 

CHAPTER II. 

FROM THE INVASION OF CHRISTIAN II., I52O, TO THE AC- 
CESSION OF GUSTAVUS TO THE THRONE, 1 523 . . . . 1 7 

CHAPTER III. 

FROM THE ELECTION OF GUSTAVUS TO THE THRONE, TO HIS 

COLLISION WITH THE CLERGY, 1 526 49 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE SUCCESSFUL STRUGGLE OF GUSTAVUS WITH THE SPIRIT- 
UAL power, 1526-27 75 

CHAPTER V. 

THE ESTABLISHMENT AND CONTINUED STRUGGLES OF THE 

REFORMATION 97 

CHAPTER VI. 

CONDITION OF THE CHURCH TO THE CLOSE OF THE REIGN 

OF KING GUSTAVUS II9 



iv Contents. 

CHAPTER VII. 

KING ERIC AND HIS BROTHERS 147 

CHAPTER VIII. 

KING ERIC'S MADNESS, IMPRISONMENT AND DEATH. DUKE 

JOHN BECOMES KING OF SWEDEN, AND HIS SON SIGISMUND 
KING OF POLAND 1 69 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE REIGN OF KING JOHN FROM 1 568 TO 1 583 . . . . I93 

CHAPTER X. 

THE REIGN OF KING JOHN FROM 1 583, TO HIS DEATH, 1 592 . 209 

CHAPTER XL 

CHARLES AND SIGISMUND 229 

CHAPTER XII. 

FROM THE MEETING OF THE DIET OF SODERKCEPING, SEPT. 
$0, I596, TO THE CLOSE OF THE REIGN OF CHARLES 
IX., OCT. 30, l6l 1 248 



THE REFORMATION IN SWEDEN. 



CHAPTER I. 

SWEDEN FROM THE TREATY OF CALMAR, 1 398, TO 
THE INVASION OF CHRISTIAN II. OF DENMARK, I 5 20. 

THE history of Scandinavia, previous to the union 
of the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden and 
Norway, under Queen Margaret, in accordance with 
the treaty of Calmar, is a record of violent commo- 
tions and revolutions, and of incessant wars between 
the three kingdoms. There is very little in it to repay 
the student of general history for the time and toil it 
will cost him to acquire any coherent idea of its ever- 
shifting conditions, and still less to attract or reward 
the student of ecclesiastical history. 
Scandina- The reigns of Birgcr, 1 290-13 19, and of his 

viaprevious son Magnus, 1 319-1363, in Sweden, were 

to Treaty of ,,,,,,. 

Calmar, so marked by cruelty and disaster to the 

*39 8 - nation that some of the banished nobles 

invited Albert, Count of Mecklenburg, son of the sister 
of Magnus, to invade the kingdom and take posses- 
sion of the throne. He accepted the invitation and 
succeeded to the throne and reigned from 1363 to 
1389. But his favors to Germans so offended the na- 
tive nobility that they compelled him to dismiss his 
German favorites, and to accept one of their number, 
Bo Jonsson, as his chief adviser in the government. 



2 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Jonsson soon became his master, and his heirs offered 
the throne to Margaret, Queen of Denmark and Nor- 
way. She sent an army into Sweden, which defeated 
and captured and imprisoned Albert. As Albert's son 
died in 1379 there was no one to contest Queen Mar- 
garet's claim to the throne, and the designation of her 
nephew Eric, Duke of Pomerania, to succeed to the 
triple throne of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which 
was secured by the treaty of Calmar, in 1398. 
Sweden tm- The conditions upon which the union of the 
der Queen three kingdoms was concluded were such as 
argart seemed to promise peace and many mutual 
advantages. It promised to put an end to the feuds by 
which the Scandinavian kingdoms had hitherto been 
convulsed, and to give to each member of the confed- 
eracy, while still retaining its separate laws and cus- 
toms, a strength beyond its own to resist the encroach- 
ments of more powerful states. It provided that the 
election of the king should in future be made conjointly, 
— the sons of the sovereign being preferred; each realm 
was to be governed by its own laws; fugitives from 
one country were not to be protected in another; all 
were bound to take up arms for the common defence. 
It is obvious to remark how great would have been 
the advantages of such an arrangement if it could have 
been faithfully maintained; but it is equally obvious to 
conclude that such a union of rival states is scarcely 
practicable in the most advanced stages of civilization, 
and quite impossible at an era of violence and under 
an undefined system of succession to the throne. Mar- 
garet herself introduced, or rather set in motion, the 
existing elements of discord by her partiality to her 
Danish subjects, — to whom she committed the chief 
posts and fortresses of Sweden,— by her new and heavy 



The Reformation in Sweden. 3 

imposts, her prodigality to the clergy, and her avowed 
policy of humbling the nobles of the land. The in- 
evitable result immediately ensued — hatred on the 
part of the Swedes and devotion on the part of the 
Danes. By a native historian of Sweden she is said to 
have been regarded by the Danes as sanctam et canoni- 
zationc dignam, and by the Swedes as profundi ssimo 
dig nam inferno. 

Sweden un- The discontent of the Swedes broke out 
der King into open rebellion after the death of Queen 

Margaret and the accession of King Eric. 
The king was not qualified either by his character or 
his administrative ability to conciliate the esteem, or 
to silence the dissatisfaction of his subjects. His cruel 
treatment of his wife Phillippa of England, who by 
her gentleness and intelligence won the hearts of the 
Swedes, subjected him to deserved obloquy. In the 
pursuit of objects in which Sweden had no interest— 
the recovery of his dukedom of Pomerania and the 
fruitless attempt to conquer Schleswig — he exhausted 
the resources of the country and shed the blood of his 
subjects in wars from which they could reap no bene- 
fit. This continued drain of men and money from the 
kingdom, and the oppression of the Danes and Ger- 
mans, who filled all the offices and occupied all the 
castles of the land, led to a civil war, which, checked 
from time to time, still broke out afresh, and was to be 
extinguished only after a hundred years of discord and 
bloodshed by the disruption of the union between Den- 
mark and Sweden. 

Rising of Englebert Englebertson, an intelligent, elo- 
Engiebertin quent and popular miner of Dalecarlia, who 

had passed his youth in the household of 
great barons, and had there acquired a degree of 



4 The Reformation in Sweden. 

knowledge and culture superior to that which was 
usual in his class, vowed to avenge the injuries suf- 
fered by the Dalecarlians in common with all their 
countrymen. The government of that province was 
in the hands of a Danish nobleman named Ericson. 
His administration was marked by every species of 
brutal cruelty and oppression. Englebert proceeded 
to Denmark and laid before the king proofs of the 
atrocious tyranny of Ericson. The king ordered an 
inquiry to be made, and the charges were admitted 
by the State Council to have been sustained. Armed 
with their report, Englebert returned to Denmark and 
laid it before the king and demanded the removal and 
punishment of Ericson. But the king had changed his 
mind, and ordered Englebert to be gone and never 
again to appear in his presence. Eric replied — " Yet 
once more I will return." 

The report of this reception by the king was the 
signal for revolt. The Dalesmen rose, elected Engle- 
bert to be their leader, marched against Westeras in 
the autumn of 1433, and though induced to retire by 
some of the State Council who were there, by their 
promise to urge reforms, yet they would not disperse 
before taking an oath that they never again would pay 
taxes to Ericson. An attempt on the part of Ericson 
to collect the taxes led to a second insurrection; but 
the State Council having persuaded Ericson to resign 
his command, the Dalesmen were again appeased. 
Ericson himself took refuge in the monastery of Wad- 
stena, from which, two years after, he was dragged 
out by the peasantry and put to death. 

This was the first armed resistance to the Danish 
dynasty, which continued from this period, 1433, at 
intervals and with varying fortunes, and with several 



The Reformation in Sweden. 5 

revolutions, until at length, under Gustavus Vasa, and 
by his agency, Sweden became, and has since contin- 
ued independent of Denmark. 

, It was necessary to describe the circum- 

Accessionof . i • i <- i i , 

Christian stances under which bweden became sub- 
//. of Den- j ec t to the crown of Denmark, in order to 

mark. . . _ _ 

understand the history of Gustavus Vasa, 
who both liberated Sweden from the sway of Denmark 
and introduced and established Protestantism in his 
kingdom. But it is not important, as preparatory to 
a sketch of the Reformation in Sweden, to narrate the 
civil history of the interval between the treaty of Cal- 
mar and the accession of Christian II. A mere outline 
of those events will answer for our present purpose. 
Suffice it to say that Englebert was elected Regent 
of the Kingdom, and held the position for three years; 
that he was succeeded in that position by another pa- 
triot, Karl Knutson, who was subsequently elected 
king; that the dynasty of Denmark again came into 
power in Sweden and held it nominally and sometimes 
for a brief period actually, during the reign of Christian 
I., 1448-81, and of Hans or John, 1481-1513, who was 
succeeded by Christian II. in the latter year. From 
this point the history of the Reformation in Sweden 
properly begins. 

Reims of The supremacy of the kings Christian I. and 
Christian I. John in Sweden was rather nominal than 
* 01 real. The real power was exercised by pa- 
triotic Swedes for the most part, who were repeatedly 
at war with Denmark. Under a popular native noble- 
man, Sten Sture, nephew of their former king, Karl 
Knutson, as regent, Sweden enjoyed for some few 
years comparative peace and prosperity. But in con- 
sequence of evils which fell upon the kingdom, for 



6 The Reformation in Sweden. 

which he was in no degree responsible — such as a 
succession of bad crops, and the excommunication 
pronounced against him, because in the interests of 
the state he withheld the revenues claimed by the 
Danish Queen dowager — Sture became unpopular with 
the fickle and unreasoning people. The king availed 
himself of this dissatisfaction, and the consequent de- 
pression of the kingdom, to march an army into Sweden 
with a view to establish his personal authority. The 
expedition of King John was successful; and he was 
crowned in Stockholm on the 25th of November, 1497. 
Sture was deposed from the Regency, but became High 
Chancellor, and was one of the four commissioners to 
whom the administration of the kingdom was com- 
mitted, by King John, on his return to Denmark. But 
on account of the great dissatisfaction with King John's 
administration, in 1501 Sture was again placed at the 
head of the government with the name of Guardian 
of the Kingdom. This position he held until his death, 
December 15, 1503. He was succeeded in the same 
office by his kinsman, Saunto Sture, whose administra- 
tion of nine years was an incessant but successful series 
of wars, in resistance of the efforts of King John to 
regain supremacy in the kingdom. After his death in 
1 5 12, his son, Steno Sture, was called by the popular 
voice, rather than by any recognized authority, as his 
successor. His election was subsequently forced upon 
the council at Stockholm by the popular clamor. 
Death of Christian II., justly known as " the tyrant," 
King John succeeded King- John, who died in 15 13. He 

— Accession . ,. . &J / ... -^ ^ 

of Chris- immediately opened negotiations with the 
Han II. Guardian and the Council with a view to 

secure their recognition of his right to the throne of 
Sweden. Failing in this attempt, he excited his partisan, 



The Reformation in Sweden. 7 

Trolle, the Archbishop, to organize an armed rebellion 
in his interest against the existing government. The 
Archbishop was described as one "who never forgave 
a past wrong, real or fancied." It in no degree dis- 
armed his hostility that Sture, in order to bring about 
a reconciliation, had secured his election to the Arch- 
bishopric. He stirred up war therefore in the interest 
of Christian II., who upon the invasion of Sweden, suf- 
fered a complete defeat. This battle, as celebrated in 
Swedish annals as that of Bannockburn in the history 
of Scotland, was fought at Bren-Kirka, July 22, 15 18. 
It was in this battle that Gustavus Vasa first appeared 
prominently, having occupied the honorable position 
of standard bearer, and distinguished himself for valor 
and ability in the field. As the history of the rise of 
the Reformation in Sweden turns upon that of Gusta- 
vus Vasa, and his history is inseparably implicated 
with that of Christian II., it becomes necessary to give 
a sketch of the life and character of each. 
Christian Christian II. was the only son of King John 
IL and his Queen, Christina of Saxony, and was 

born in 1481. It is an evidence of the simplicity of the 
times, and of the country, that in order to provide for 
their frequent absence from Copenhagen, the King and 
Queen, instead of leaving him in the palace in the care 
of their own attendants, placed him under the charge 
of a book-binder of the City. It may be inferred also 
that, discerning his imperious, cruel and crafty nature, 
his parents felt that these evil traits would be more 
likely to be restrained in a well regulated private home, 
than in the palace, where his faults would be likely to 
be flattered and inflamed, rather than restrained, by 
subservient menials and courtiers. Hans Metzenheim, 
the book-binder, was a burgomaster and a counsellor 



8 The Reformation in Sweden. 

of state, and having no children of their own, he and 
his wife devoted themselves assiduously to the education 
of the royal boy. His capacity was very great, and he 
applied himself well, under constraint, to his studies, and 
made rapid progress; but his tutor Hinze, a Canon of 
the Cathedral, dared not trust the wayward boy out 
of sight, and therefore, always took him to church 
when on duty there. As the young Prince had a fine 
voice and a good ear for music, he was made to sing 
among the choristers at matins and vespers. But 
when King John was told that the heir of three 
Kingdoms was singing, and was much admired, in 
all of the choirs of Copenhagen, he sharply rebuked 
his tutor for placing his son in a position derogatory 
to his royal dignity. The incident led to a change 
of tutors. At the request of the King, Joachin of 
Brandenburg sent him another tutor, Magister Con- 
rad, a man of great learning and force of character, 
who was able to control his pupil, and succeeded in 
imbuing him with a love of learning. Christian made 
great progress and is said at an early age and during 
all his life "to have written and spoken Latin as well 
as the most learned University professors of his time" 
(Otto's Scandinavia, page 214). 

But this ready mastery of learning seems in no de- 
gree to have softened or refined his character. He was 
accustomed, after he was domiciled in the palace, to 
bribe the porter to allow him to go out in the night 
and join in scenes of revelry and licentiousness. On 
some occasions, when detected in these escapades, the 
King personally applied a horse-whip to his shoulders. 
But when he had reached the age of twenty, and this 
sort of rigid discipline became no longer possible, the 
King sent him as his Viceroy to govern Norway. He 



The Reformation in Sweden. 9 

at once put himself in an attitude of hostility to the 
nobility, and relentlessly crushed out every attempt 
at resistance or rebellion. He seems from his early 
boyhood to have hated the nobility, to have had a 
dislike to their character, habits and manners, quite 
irrespective of their feelings or relations towards him- 
self. His chosen associates were among the lower 
classes. His enmity to the nobles was increased by 
the restrictions which they imposed upon his authority 
at his Coronation. 

Gust av us Gustavus V'asa, or as he was called before 
Vasa. he became king, Gustavus Erickson, was de- 

scended from an ancient and noble family. His grand- 
father, Christopher Nilson, was appointed a councillor 
by King Eric. His father was not distinguished in 
the public service, and though called "a merry and 
facetious lord," was arraigned before the council in 
Stockholm for cruelty to his peasants, and made to 
pledge himself "that he would not thereafter place 
them in irons or treat them like senseless beasts," 
when accused of depredations upon his estates, but 
''would allow them their rights in law." The date 
of his birth has been fixed on good grounds, on As- 
cension Day, 1496. Those presages of future great- 
ness which seldom fail to be subsequently recorded, 
in the case of those who become renowned, were not 
wanting at his birth. A crimson cross was marked 
upon his breast, and the outline of a helmet was seen 
upon his head. When he was only four years old, 
King John, during one of his later visits to Sweden, 
saw him playing the part of the king in the midst of 
a group of children and, as the story goes, patted him 
upon the head, saying "that if he lived he would be 
a remarkable man." He kept the bright boy in his 



io The Reformation in Sweden. 

train while he was in Sweden, and wished to carry 
him to Denmark. If he had done so the whole his- 
tory of Northern Europe would have been changed, 
the Reformation in Sweden perhaps never effected, 
nor the liberation of Protestantism, mainly due to 
the heroic Gustavus Adolphus, achieved. But Sten 
Sture, suspecting that the king was more bent on se- 
curing a hostage than a foster son, sent him to his 
father, who was then Lord Feudatory of Aland. 

Geijer remarks that "all accounts agree that young 
Gustavus was placed in the Seminary of Upsala, in 
1509." "It is known," he continues, "that he was 
placed in the grammar school and was subjected to 
personal chastisement while there by the Danish school- 
master. The latter was informed that the young pupil 
had upon some occasion said, 'See what I will do! I 
will go to Dalecarlia, get out the Dalesmen, and knock 
the Danes on the head.' Gustavus suffered his school 
flogging, then drawing his little sword, he thrust it 
through the curtains with a malison never to return. 
A hundred years afterwards the country people could 
point out the places in the neighborhood of Upsala 
which he had frequented with his playmates, and tell 
how he had been at a wolf chase hunting merrily." As 
an indication of the bent of his mind toward religious 
subjects, it is stated that while he was at Upsala, his 
chief studies, outside of the curiculum of the school, 
were canon law and theology. He was also a gifted 
musician, and while at school made several musical 
instruments, which are still preserved in the palace 
of Stockholm. 

All accounts agree that he was received and em- 
ployed in the Court of the Regent Sten Sture the 
younger. He was then eighteen years of age, and was 



The Reformation in Sweden. ii 

placed under the tuition of Hemming- Gadd, who had 
been mathematicus to Pope Alexander III., had written 
a history of Sweden which was much prized, was a sworn 
enemy of the Danes and an able politician. With him, 
no doubt, the young patriot could freely resume his 
boyish talk of his purpose to rouse up Dalesmen and 
knock Danes upon the head — a seemingly wild and 
empty boast which was subsequently so remarkably 
fulfilled. The chroniclers of the time speak of him as 
"a noble youth, comely, ready-witted and prompt in 
action." He was particularly distinguished, even at 
that early period, for the persuasive eloquence which 
was one of the most potent means by which he subse- 
quently acquired such a commanding influence over 
his countrymen. Even to his extreme old age, when 
Gustavus met any large body of his countrymen in 
council, or in a crisis of affairs, they would clamor for 
a speech from the old man eloquent, and receive it 
with immense applause, and insist that there was no 
orator like him. We shall see how at a momentous 
crisis of his own fortunes and of those of the Reforma- 
tion, he consolidated the former and saved the latter 
by a single speech. 

The battle ^ vvas a f ter Gustavus had resided at the 
of Brc/m- court three years, that the rising of Arch- 
bishop Trolle, in the interest of Christian II., 
already alluded to, occurred. The Archbishop was 
besieged in his castle of Stekborg and a Danish re- 
inforcement was sent to his relief. This force was 
defeated by Gustavus. In the following year, in the 
famous battle of Brenn-Kirk, between King Christian 
and Sten Sture, in which the king was defeated, Gus- 
tavus, as we have seen, bore the banner. But by the 
treachery of the king, and the misplaced confidence in 



12 The Reformation in Sweden. 

him of the Regent, this victory resulted in disaster and 
loss rather than gain. The Danes attempted after the 
defeat to retreat, but the fleet in which they embarked 
their shattered forces was detained by contrary winds, 
and sorely pressed by famine. The king, in order to 
gain time, professed a desire to negotiate a peace which 
should leave Sweden henceforth unmolested by the 
Danes. The Regent, feeling that he had the king in 
his power, and that he could force upon him terms 
which would secure him and his kingdom in the future, 
consented to treat with him; and during the negotia- 
tions he generously furnished the famishing squadron 
with beef and other provisions. The king invited him 
to a personal conference on board his ship; and the 
unsuspecting Regent would have fallen into the snare 
thus prepared for him, had not the town council de- 
clared that if he went on board they would soon have 
another Regent, for they were sure he never would 
return. 

Foiled in this base design, the king devised another, 
equally treacherous, which was completely successful. 
He professed his willingness to come on shore, pro* 
vided suitable hostages should be sent to the squadron. 
Six nobles — including Gustavus and Hemming Gadd 
— were chosen for this purpose. But the boat in which 
they were embarked, had not accomplished half its 
passage to the fleet, when a Danish ship with a hun- 
dred men on board captured it, and carried the six 
hostages to the fleet as prisoners. A favorable breeze 
springing up took away all hope of rescue. The fleet 
weighed anchor, the sails were filled, and they were 
all soon landed on the coast of Denmark. Thus the 
defeated king, by an act of gross treachery, evaded 
the promised proposals of peace, provisioned his starv- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 13 

ing fleet and army from his victorious enemy, and 
carried into captivity six of the most eminent nobles 
of the land. But it was a triumph which, by intensi- 
fying the patriotic passion of the Swedes, led to an 
ultimate defeat. 

Gustavus had the good fortune to be com- 
tiy ana es- mitted to the care of a kinsman, Baron Eric 
cape of Gus- Baner, Governor of the castle of Kallo, North 

Jutland, where he spent upwards of a year 
as a prisoner, and was treated with kindness and al- 
lowed a liberty, not usually granted to prisoners of 
state. But the whole country was ringing with rumors 
of the great preparations which were in progress for 
the conquest of Sweden. Christian had imposed new 
taxes for the prosecution of the war and even extorted 
from the Papal Legate the sums that had been amassed 
by the sale of indulgences, which he appropriated on 
the plea that it was a war in which the interests of 
the Papacy were involved. Copenhagen was thronged 
with French, Scotch and English mercenary officers 
and troops. The young soldiers at the mess of the 
castle of Kallo talked of the preparations for the con- 
quest of Sweden with exasperating exultation. They 
boasted that they would soon play with the Swedes 
"S. Peter's game" — an allusion to the Papal interdict 
which they hoped to secure, and jestingly and mock- 
ingly parcelled out among themselves the wealth and 
beauty of the nation. 

How the ardent and patriotic heart of the young 
Gustavus must have chafed in his captivity! "By 
such contumelies was Lord Gustavus Ericson seized 
with anguish beyond measure, so that neither meat 
nor drink might savor pleasantly to him, even if he 
had been furnished better than he was. His sleep was 



14 The Reformation in Sweden. 

neither quiet nor delectable, for he co-uld think of noth- 
ing else than how he might find opportunity to extri- 
cate himself from the unjust captivity in which he was 
held" (Geijer, page 98). 

It is not to be wondered at that under such circum- 
stances Gustavus should have persuaded himself that 
he might without dishonor escape from his captivity. 
He might well feel that he was called to do so by duty 
to his country. He was not a prisoner captured, in 
war. He was stolen and consigned to captivity in 
violation of Royal pledges and of the laws which reg- 
ulated the warfare of civilized nations. Early in the 
morning of February 19, he left the castle disguised, 
according to some as a pilgrim, but according to others 
as a drover, and traveled on the first day of his escape 
forty-two English miles. He did not reach Lubeck 
until the last day of September, when he threw him- 
self on the protection of the Burgomaster and Council. 
As soon as Eric Baner discovered the retreat of Gus- 
tavus, he hastened to Lubeck, armed with a letter 
of the King, and demanded back his prisoner. He 
complained at the same time that Gustavus had es- 
caped, contrary to his pledged word as a Knight and 
a Kinsman. Gustavus spoke in his own defense. "I 
was captured," he said, " contrary to all justice and 
plighted faith. It is notorious that I went to the King's 
fleet as a hostage. Let any one who can, point out 
the place where I was made prisoner in battle, or de- 
clare the crime for which I deserve chains. Call me 
not then a prisoner, but a man seized, unjustly, over- 
reached and betrayed. Am I not in a free city and 
before a government renowned for justice and for be- 
friending the persecuted ? Shall I be altogether de- 
ceived in the confidence I have reposed in them ? Or 



The Reformation in Sweden. 15 

can breach of faith be reasonably objected to me by- 
one who never kept oath or promise ? Or can it be 
wondered at that I should free myself from a prison 
which I deserved by no fault except that of trusting 
to a King?" 

Gustavus promised to repay to Baner the $6,000 by 
which he was pledged to Christian for the security of 
his prisoner. This promise he was not able at first to 
fulfil, and subsequently he believed himself exonerated 
from it by the wrongs which he had endured. He 
denied also that he had given any pledge to remain 
at Kallo, or that he was in the position of a prisoner 
on his parole of honor. 

However much or little the shrewd burgesses of 
Lubeck may have felt the force of this argument, their 
sympathies no doubt were enlisted on the side of a 
fine, spirited young man, the dupe of a faithless tyrant. 
Moreover, motives of policy happily coincided with 
those of feeling. Christian, as the undisputed Lord 
of the three Northern Kingdoms, would possess a 
power which he might easily employ for the subjec- 
tion of one of the smallest of the free Hanse towns, 
which was protected rather by a tradition of its in- 
violability than by any possession of military power. 
The Burgomaster urged this view upon his colleagues. 
"Who knows," said the council, "What Gustavus may 
do when he gets back to Sweden?" They evidently 
hoped that he might be an instrument for checking 
the progress of the King in his native land, and thus 
prevent him from plotting against their liberties. With 
this view they refused to deliver Gustavus to the Baron 
Baner, and determined to send him back to Sweden. 

His brief residence in Lubeck exercised a moment- 
ous influence on the subsequent career of Gustavus. It 



16 The Reformation in Sweden, 

was there that he first heard and became interested 
in the doctrines of the Reformation, and thus became 
providentially prepared for his great mission — the de- 
liverance of his country from the Papal despotism. 
The Inter- During the captivity of Gustavus events of 
diet. the utmost moment had occurred in Sweden. 

The talk of the young soldiers over their cups in the 
dinner hall of Kallo, which had so exasperated him 
and led to his escape, was not all boyish gasconade. 
The u Game of S. Peter" — the threatened interdict — 
had been played, and Sweden was soon after success- 
fully invaded by Christian. 

The only ground on which the Pope could claim 
that there was cause for his interference between 
Christian and the Swedes, was that the latter were 
in rebellion against their lawful lord; and that it was 
his duty to coerce kings to perform their civil duties 
by spiritual penalties. There was as yet no question 
of religion involved in the strife. But the once terrible 
instruments of interdict and excommunication had not 
lost all their power, and the former was laid upon the 
kingdom, and the latter was pronounced against the 
Regent, and against all who had espoused his cause. 
Pope Leo X. was equally ready to pronounce a bless- 
ing or a curse which would replenish his treasury, and 
enable him to indulge his luxurious tastes. No real 
influence appears to have been exerted by these spirit- 
ual weapons. That in which the sting of the Papal 
Bull was contained was the fact that the execution of it 
was committed to Christian. It was this unusual pro- 
vision which constituted the plea for the horrible atroc- 
ities which he committed when he acquired the pos- 
session of the kingdom. 



CHAPTER II. 

FROM THE INVASION OF CHRISTIAN II., 152O, TO THE 
ACCESSION OF GUSTAVUS TO THE THRONE, I 523. 

Christian's '"PHE whole of the year 15 19 was spent 
invasion of -»- in making preparations for the inva- 
sion. In the beginning of the year 1520 the 
Danish army broke into Sweden under the General Otho 
Krumpen. He caused the Papal Ban to be affixed to 
all the churches on his march. The Regent met the 
invaders on the ice of the lake of Ascunden in West 
Gothland. But being wounded in the beginning of the 
battle, he was carried out of the conflict and his army 
was defeated. Learning that the victorious Danes were 
marching upon Stockholm, he caused himself to be car- 
ried to the Capital on a sledge, but died upon the ice of 
lake Malar when near the city. Everything was thrown 
into confusion by this disaster. A few magnates met 
but did not feel authorized to appoint a successor to the 
Regency. The country people assembled in various lo- 
calities to resist the enemy; but without leaders and 
organization, they were easily dispersed. The heroic 
widow of the Regent, Christina Gillenstierna, still con- 
tinued to defend Stockholm. She refused to accede to 
the agreement which the Swedish barons in a diet had 
made with Christian, that they would recognize him as 
king, on condition that he should govern in accordance 
with the laws of the kingdom and the treaty of Calmar. 



1 8 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Gustavusin It was while these disasters were occurring" 
Sweden. j n Sweden that Gustavus embarked in a 
merchant vessel bound to Stockholm, with the purpose 
of offering his services to the Regent's widow. Unable 
to penetrate into the city, because it was so closely 
invested, he steered for Calmar, which still held out 
against the king. That fortress also was defended by 
a woman, Ann Bielke, the widow of the former com- 
mandant. But so dispirited did he find the burghers 
of that city, that his appeals to them to make a gallant 
defense, not only failed to rouse their courage, but led 
to threats against his life. He fled from the city on the 
day that it was surrendered. From Calmar he proceeded 
to Smaland, among his father's tenants. But even 
there he was not safe. The province of East Gothland 
was so filled with Danes, that it was only by continual 
changes of quarters and disguises that he escaped de- 
tection. His appeals to his countrymen to rise and 
shake off the yoke, were met by a stolid half-despair, 
which seemed now to have taken possession of all ranks 
in the kingdom. During the whole summer he glided 
through by-ways from one place of danger to another, 
sleeping one night in the woods, and another hidden 
by brush wood in the open field, disguised and pursued 
with a price upon his head. In September he appeared 
without money and with only the tattered clothes which 
he wore, in the house of his brother-in-law, J. Brahe. In 
vain he urged Brahe to disobey the summons which he 
had received to be present at the coronation of Chris- 
tian at Stockholm, which had then surrendered. The 
unhappy man, sharing the terror that everywhere pre- 
vailed, feared that he would be marked if he should be 
absent, and set out upon the journey which proved to 
be, as Gustavus had predicted, his last. His son, in 



The Reformation in Sweden. 19 

his chronicle of these times, gives his answer to the 
appeal of Gustavus: " I am specially cited to the coro- 
nation," he said, "and if I should remain away what 
would become of my wife and children ? Perhaps ill 
might come of it to your parents as well as hers, and 
others of our friends. For you the matter stands quite 
otherwise, for not many know where you are. It can 
go no worse with me than with all the Swedish lords 
who are now gathered about the king." How fatally 
it went with both him and them we soon shall see! 
Proceedings ^he diet °f Swedish Barons held at Upsala 
of Chris- had agreed to accept Christian as King, on 
the explicit condition that he would govern 
according to the treaty of Calmar and the laws of 
Sweden. These engagements were personally con- 
firmed by the king upon arriving with his fleet before 
Stockholm. He added moreover that the measures 
adopted against Archbishop Trolle, who was now re- 
stored to his office, should be forgotten and forgiven. 
These assurances were again renewed when Hemming 
Gadd, who had spent his life in passionate opposition to 
the Danish claims, now appeared in old age through 
the depression caused by the seeming hopelessness of 
further resistance, as their advocate. It was by the 
weight of his character and the previously known hos- 
tility to the Danes, that Christina Gillenstierna was 
induced to surrender Stockholm, against the remon- 
strances of the burghers. When the king returned in 
autumn and was crowned in Stockholm, he once more 
confirmed, by oath and the reception of the Sacrament, 
the securities which he had given. And yet at that 
Very moment it is placed beyond all doubt that he had 
resolved upon the murder of the chief nobles and high- 
est citizens of Sweden. In the proclamation of the 



20 The Reformation in Sweden. 

council of State, issued after Christian had been de- 
throned, it is stated that at the coronation, and only 
three days preceding the massacre of the nobles, he 
had appeared, full of courtesy and friendliness, to his 
unsuspecting victims. " He appeared," says that doc- 
ument, "friendly to all and was very merry and pleas- 
ant in his demeanor, caressing some with hypocritical 
kisses, and others with embraces, clapping his hands, 
and displaying on all hands tokens of affection." 

It soon appeared how much had been meant by the 
threat to play the game of S. Peter in Sweden, and by 
leaving the execution of the Papal power in the hands 
of the king. Notwithstanding the festivities and cour- 
tesies connected with the coronation, some circum- 
stances took place which excited the suspicions of the 
Swedish nobles. There was a marked omission of all 
Swedes from the honors which were distributed on that 
occasion. Many of the Danish officers who had sig- 
nalized themselves in the invasion of the kingdom, re- 
ceived the honor of knighthood at the hands of the 
king; but no Swede received any mark of favor beyond 
empty and hypocritical courtesies and words. The 
king excused himself for not extending the same hon- 
or to the Swedes, on the ground that he had received 
no aid from them in the recovery of the throne; but he 
added that by their fidelity in the future, he would 
be able to confer on them as much favor as he had 
bestowed on the most distinguished of his Danish 
officers. 

In the midst of these festivities which lasted three 
days the king held a cabinet council in which the ques- 
tion was discussed as to the penalties which should be 
inflicted upon those who had resisted his authority by 
armed rebellion. He observed that the Swedes were 



The Reformation in Sweden. 21 

exceedingly jealous of their freedom, and that unless 
they were completely subdued, they would not long 
endure a government which from its nature, in order to 
be effective, must be strict. He proposed to root out, 
as he had done in Norway, the distinguished and noble 
families, and leave only the commonalty, which with- 
out able leaders would soon be brought into submis- 
sion. He demanded of his counsellors how this might 
be accomplished with the greatest safety. 

Some suggested that a quarrel should be got up 
between the military and the town's people, and that 
in the confusion which would ensue, they should take 
off whom they pleased. But this was dismissed as a 
hazardous and doubtful scheme. Others suggested that 
gunpowder should be placed under the castle, and that 
a charge of treason founded upon this fact should be 
laid against the nobles. But the counsel of Didric 
Slaghec (called after this by a slight change of pro- 
nunciation Slag-hoch^or slaughter-hawk) was that which 
was finally adopted. He was the king's confessor, a 
Westphalian by birth, and had once been a barber's 
assistant. He suggested — and it was believed, by a 
previous understanding with the king — that the king 
now wielded two swords, the temporal and the spirit- 
ual: the temporal in his own right and the spiritual 
upon the express designation of the Pope. The king 
might forgive offenses against himself, but not against 
the Holy See. His promise of oblivion was therefore to 
be kept as far as he personally was concerned, but in 
his capacity as representative of the Church it was not 
binding. Let him then bring the excommunication 
into play, and deal with all who had taken part against 
Archbishop Trolle as heretics. And yet the penalty 
which the Pope, in whose name this atrocious advice 



22 The Reformation in Sweden. 

was given, had already pronounced was only that the 
demolished castle of the archbishop should be rebuilt, 
and that compensation for damages should be given, 
and a pecuniary fine should be levied. 
"The blood It was at an entertainment at the castle 
bath." given by the king that the first act of this 

awful tragedy, called the blood bath in the annals of 
Sweden, was performed. The archbishop, by previous 
concert with the king, came before the throne, and de- 
manded that Steckborg should be rebuilt, and the au- 
thors of his wrong should be punished. The accusation 
being pointed against Sten Sture and his adherents, 
Christina Gillenstierna, in justification of her husband, 
produced the deed which solemnly deposed the arch- 
bishop and decreed the destruction of his castle. This 
was precisely what the king desired. He immediately 
declared that he would treat all who had signed it as 
heretics. They were asked separately whether they 
acknowledged their signatures, and as they could not 
deny them, they were all taken into custody, with the 
exception of two bishops, who proved that they had 
signed the document under compulsion. Thus, as sub- 
sequently in the case of the marriage festivities of 
Henry of Navarre, the hall of feasting was suddenly 
converted into a tribunal for the trial of alleged here- 
tics and rebels. 

The prisoners were committed for the night to the 
tower of the chapel and other parts of the castle. A 
tribunal, consisting of the archbishop and several 
bishops and nobles was appointed by the king to 
decide specifically upon the crime of which they were 
guilty and to assign their punishment. The tribunal 
declared that the prisoners were manifest heretics, ac- 
cording to the just law of the Holy Church, of the 



The Reformation in Sweden. 23 

Emperor and of Sweden. The punishment of heresy 
was death. Resistance to an archbishop in arms 
against the constituted authorities of the realm pro- 
nounced to be heresy ! Nothing- could be more ab- 
surd ! But when a brutal tyrant like Christian is bent 
on getting rid of enemies one plea is as good as an- 
other. In this case no doubt Christian felt that it was 
better to direct the obloquy which would follow this 
wholesale murder, upon the church, rather than draw 
it directly upon himself, by resting it upon the much 
more plausible ground of treason. 

The victims were immediately notified by their 
appointed executioner of their coming doom. They 
applied in vain for the last consolations of religion. 
On the following morning the question was proposed 
to them whether it was not heresy to confederate and 
conspire against the most Holy See of Rome. They 
were constrained to answer that it was, but contended 
that the punishment of a rebellious archbishop, could 
not be construed as conspiracy against the Pope. 
But their admission was feigned to be a confession 
of their guilt. 

The execution of the nobles took place on Novem- 
ber 8, just one w T eek after the coronation. On the 
morning of that day the inhabitants of Stockholm 
were forbidden on pain of death to leave their houses, 
before a signal to be given by sound of trumpet. The 
cannons of the castle were loaded and others so placed 
as to command the principal streets. A heavy fore- 
boding oppressed the minds of the citizens. When 
the clock struck twelve the trumpet sounded, and the 
people were summoned to the great square of the city. 
The castle gates were soon after opened, the draw- 
bridge lowered, and the prisoners brought forth. There 



24 The Reformation in Sweden. 

were Matthias, Bishop of Strengness, Vincentius, Bishop 
of Skara, and twelve secular nobles, most of them mem- 
bers of the State Council, including" Eric Johnanson, 
the father of Gustavus, Joachim Brahe, whom his broth- 
er-in-law, Gustavus, had attempted to dissuade from 
going to the coronation, the burgomaster and town 
council of Stockholm, and many burgesses. A Danish 
knight, Nicholas Lyke, addressed the people, telling 
them not to be terrified at what they were about 
to witness; that the archbishop had three times on 
bended knees besought the king that the sentence of 
death should be executed upon the culprits, and that 
he had at length yielded to the request; but Bishop 
Vincentius interrupted him by exclaiming that there 
was not a word of truth in the statement; that the 
king could do nothing without lying and treachery, 
and he prayed God for vengeance on his tyranny. The 
incident shows the purpose of the king that the oblo- 
quy sure to follow this atrocious massacre should fall 
upon the Archbishop and the church. 

Christian, who beheld these scenes from an open 
window of the old council house, now gave a sign that 
the execution should begin. Bishop Matthias was the 
first victim. He had taken with him to the coronation 
his chancellor Olaus Petri and Laurentius Petri his 
brother, who as the venerable bishop stood with his 
hands raised up to heaven, awaiting the blow of the ex- 
ecutioner, rushed forward to embrace him. Before they 
could reach the spot his head rolled upon the ground. 
The two brothers could not restrain their indignation, 
and loudly proclaimed that it was an inhuman murder 
of a venerable and blameless man. They were seized 
and about to share the fate of their beloved bishop, 
but were spared when a German who had studied with 



The Reformation in Sweden. 25 

them at Wittemberg declared that they were not 
Swedes. These two intrepid brothers became the 
chief agents of the Swedish Reformation. 

Bishop Vincentius was next beheaded, then the lay- 
nobles, then the burgesses. Olaus Magnus, who was 
unaccountably spared, says he saw ninety-four persons 
beheaded, and expected at each execution to be sum- 
moned next. When Eric Johnanson, the father of 
Gustavus, was led out for execution, a messenger from 
Christian came to him to offer him " pardon, grace and 
honor;" but the stout old patriot, thinking perhaps 
of his persecuted and fugitive son, refused to accept 
life from the blood-stained tyrant and cried out — "No, 
for God's sake let me die with these honest men, my 
brethren," and laid his head upon the block. Many 
were hanged or subjected to other horrible deaths. 
A contemporary historian, Zeigler, states that Johan- 
ness Magnus was crucified with circumstances of re- 
volting cruelty. For three days, as new victims were 
enticed out of their hiding-places, by promises of par- 
don and security, the slaughter continued. Some were 
put to death because they could not restrain their tears 
at the loss of relatives and friends. No element of 
horror was absent from this carnival of blood. The 
retainers of the great nobles who had been executed 
were dragged from their horses as they attempted to 
escape from the city, and hanged in such numbers 
that girths and stirrup leathers, were used as substi- 
tutes for halters. A violent rain mingling with blood 
in the gutters of the streets, tinged everything with 
the hue of murder. For three days the slaughtered 
bodies remained in the market place; after which they 
were carried out to the South suburb of the city and 
burned. We must resort to the worst scenes of the 



26 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Reign of Terror in France, to find a parallel to this 
brutal slaughter. 

Nor were these executions confined to Stockholm. 
They extended to Finland where Hemming Gadd suf- 
fered the just penalty of his defection from the cause 
to which he had given the best energies of his life, by 
laying his head upon the block at the age of eighty. 
The king's whole progress from Stockholm to Denmark 
was marked by cruel executions. Gibbets were erected 
in the market places and towns, previous to his arrival. 
At a monastery where he had ascertained that the ab- 
bot had hidden part of his stores in the woods, he 
ordered him and five monks to be thrown into a stream 
and drowned. And yet, even while the massacre was 
in progress in Stockholm, Christian had sent out a pro- 
clamation to the provinces, stating that " by the advice 
of the bishops, prelates, and other wise men, he had 
punished Sten Sture's confederates as heretics under 
the ban of the Church, but that he meant henceforth to 
govern the country mildly and peaceably according to 
the laws of S. Eric." More than six hundred of the 
highest and best citizens of Sweden had been slaugh- 
tered before the king left it in the beginning of the 
year 1521. 

From the " History of the Revolution in Sweden, oc- 
casioned by the Change in Religion and the Alteration 
of the Government in that Kingdom," by the Abbe 
Vertot, and translated into English in 1729, I take the 
following account of the massacre. It is that of a Ro- 
man Catholic writer, but of one whose whole narrative 
shows him to have been honest and dispassionate. 
His book could scarcely have been satisfactory to the 
Papists. 

After describing the method by which the Bishop of 



The Reformation in Sweden. 27 

Linkoping escaped the massacre, he thus continues his 
narrative: " Then they proceeded to the execution of 
the lay senators, beginning with Eric, the father of Gus 
tavus. The consuls and magistrates of Stockholm and 
ninety-four lords who were arrested in the castle under- 
went the same fate. Yet the king instead of being 
satisfied with the death of so many illustrious persons, 
was extremely vexed that some lords whom he had 
particularly inserted in the black roll had escaped his 
fury. He imagined that they lay concealed in the town, 
and was so afraid that they would make their escape, 
and so desirous to arrest Gustavus, who he thought 
might be hid in some house in the city, that he gave 
full scope to his vengeance; he resolved to confound 
the innocent with the guilty, and to expose the town 
to the fury of the soldiers. As soon as they received 
those bloody orders, they fell upon the people who had 
come to be witnesses of that bloody spectacle, and pro- 
miscuously murdered all that had the misfortune to be 
in their way. Afterward they broke into the principal 
houses under the pretext of searching for Gustavus and 
the other proscribed lords. The citizens were stabbed 
in the arms of their shrieking wives, their houses were 
plundered and the honor of their wives and daughters 
was exposed to the brutish lust of the soldiers, who by 
orders, after the example of their inhuman sovereign, 
strove to out-do each other in the wildest and most 
extravagant barbarity. 

" A certain gentleman of the Swedish nation was so 
sensibly touched by the moving sight of so many de- 
plorable objects that he could not restrain the im- 
petuosity of his grief, nor behold such scenes of horror 
without bewailing the misery of his country. The 
furious king was so enraged by these marks of com- 



28 The Reformation in Sweden. 

passion, which his guilty conscience interpreted as 
secret reproaches of his cruelty, that he commanded 
the unfortunate mourner to be fastened to a gibbet, 
his privy members were cut off, his belly ripped up, and 
his heart plucked out, as if pity and compassion had 
been the foulest of crimes. Afterward the king pre- 
tending that the commiserator had rendered himself 
unworthy of Christian burial, by incurring the sentence 
of excommunication, ordered his body to be taken up 
and exposed in the public place among the mangled 
carcasses of his ancient friends. He issued an order 
that no person should presume to bury any of these 
bodies on pain of death; and would have suffered them 
to lie in the open place, as a terrible monument of his 
vengeance, if the stench and putrefaction had not ob- 
liged him to command them to be taken away. But 
before they were removed he could not forbear going 
on purpose to take a view of the dismal trophies of his 
fury. At last he ordered them to be carried out of the 
city and be burned, that even death itself might not 
exempt them from a second punishment which he pre- 
tended to inflict upon them as excommunicated per- 
sons." (Hist. p. in-12.) 

An historian of Sweden ends his record of these 
tragic events in these words: "While these horrors 
were being enacted, a noble youth wandering in the 
forests of Dalecarlia, fleeing before the emissaries of 
the tyrant, and hidden from his pursuers, sometimes 
in a rick of straw and sometimes under fallen trees, or 
in cellars and mines, was preserved by providence, 
whose great soul was already meditating the salvation 
of his country and eventually achieved it by the aid 
of God and Sweden's commonalty." 



The Reformation in Sweden. 29 

Christian's Before the story of these wanderings is re- 
Character sumed, I pause to say a few words upon the 
and Policy. character and policy of King . Christian. It 

is not necessary to say, with the above facts before us, 
that he was one of the most base, crafty and cruel 
tyrants of whom history makes mention. But he be- 
longs to a small and peculiar class of tyrants. He 
was one of those who entertained a deadly hatred of 
the aristocracy, not only from political jealousy, be- 
cause of their constant attempts to limit his power, 
and to reach up to his level or to overtop him, but 
from a coarseness of nature and of manners, though 
born in the purple, which led him to choose his boon 
companions, and indulge his licentious passions among 
the lower classes. To this class belonged Ivan the 
Terrible of Russia, and Peter the Great, and I think I 
may add the first Napoleon. While, therefore, Chris- 
tian showed himself fierce and cruel to the nobles and 
the cultivated classes, he was complaisant in his gen- 
ial moods, to the common people, and secured the 
passage of many laws for their welfare and improve- 
ment. For, like Peter the Great of Russia, coarse in 
his tastes and endowed with great abilities, Avhile he la- 
bored on the one hand to depress the nobility, he ex- 
erted himself on the other to develop the resources of his 
kingdoms, and to lift the laboring classes to a higher 
level of intelligence and prosperity. He caused good 
laws to be passed in favor of the commercial and labor- 
ing classes, and was the first king in northern Europe 
who opened schools for the poor of his dominions. He 
ordered the burghers of all the large cities in the 
three Scandinavian kingdoms, under the penalty of 
heavy fines, to compel their children to learn to read, 
and write and cipher. He also caused better books 



30 The Reformation in Sweden. 

than were then in use to be prepared and printed for 
the public schools. He made the first attempt to es- 
tablish a post in the country by forming a band of 
post runners, who, both in winter and summer, passed 
between Copenhagen and the chief towns of his do- 
minions. Wayside inns were established at certain dis- 
tances along the road, and the system was established, 
which still prevails in Norway, by which the local pop- 
ulation were obliged to keep the roads in order and 
to supply relays of horses for travelers. He forbade 
bishops to burn witches, and to claim the old strand 
tax, or wreckage of stranded vessels. He put an end 
to selling peasants with the land. And strange it 
sounds to hear that the author of the blood bath of 
Stockholm was very much interested in the cultiva- 
tion of flowers and vegetables, and by the advice of his 
queen sent for and employed Flemish gardeners. He 
would have proved in all probability a successful ty- 
rant but for that passion of cruelty which led him to 
outrages too intolerable to remain unavenged, and that 
elaborate craft which is always short-sighted and sure 
ultimately to entrap its master in the toils which he 
weaves for others. 

After visiting his brother-in-law Joachin 
ings and Brahe and his sister Margaret, Gustavus 
Dangers of repaired to his father's estate of Rasfness 

Gustavus. . . ,.i ,- iitt 

and there lived some time concealed. He 
made himself known to the old Archbishop Jacob 
Ulfson, and learned from him that the peasants in 
Dalecarlia had risen against the government of Chris- 
tian but had been defeated. The archbishop advised 
him to submit to the king, and informed him that his 
name was included in the amnesty which was pro- 
claimed on the surrender of Stockholm. " Once, " says 



The Reformation in Sweden. 31 

Geijer, " after such a conversation, when Jacob Ulfson 
had employed his eloquence in vain, it happened that 
an old servant of Joachin Brahe presented himself at 
the castle of Gripsholm, and rather by sighs and tears 
than words imparted the first tidings of the massacre 
at Stockholm." The terrible news was soon confirmed. 
The archbishop was dumb from horror and Gustavus 
prepared for flight. 

He left Raefness on horseback on the 26th of Novem- 
ber, 1520, accompanied by a single servant who stole 
off with the saddle-bags, which contained all his ef- 
fects and money. He chased the servant and secured 
the saddle-bags, but the thief escaped. When he 
reached the frontier of Dalecarlia, he assumed the dress 
of a peasant and served as he had opportunity as a farm 
laborer. When thus employed with Anders Pehrson, 
a rich miner at Rankhytta, a maid servant one day 
caught sight of a gold-embroidered collar beneath his 
jacket and informed her master of the fact. Looking 
attentively in his face, Pehrson recognized him as an 
old school fellow at Upsala; but while not disposed to 
betray him, he was unwilling to harbor a refugee so 
distinguished. The barn at which Gustavus threshed 
at Rankhytta is preserved as a state monument* After 
breaking through the ice in passing over a ferry and 
spending the night shivering in a peasant's hut, he pre- 
sented himself the next day to Arendt Pehrson who 
had served under him at Brankyrka, and did not scruple 
to discover himself to his old companion in arms. But 

* King Chai-les XI. visited this bam in 1684. It is now marked with a 
monument of porphyry with this inscription: " Here worked as a thresher 
Gustavus Ericson pursued by foes of the realm but selected by providence to 
be the Saviour of the country. His descendant in the sixth generation, Gus- 
tavus III., raised this memorial." 



32 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Pehrson's fear of Christian was stronger than his sense 
of generosity and honor; and though he received Gus- 
tavus with seeming cordiality, he resolved to deliver 
him up to the king's lieutenant in the neighborhood. 
After Gustavus had retired for the night Pehrson left 
the house and returned early in the morning with the 
king's lieutenant and a body of thirty men to take him 
prisoner. But Gustavus had escaped through the kind- 
ness of Pehrson's wife. Suspecting the treachery of 
her lord from his absence, she warned her guest of 
his danger, provided him with a horse and sledge and 
guide and sent him to the Swedsjo parsonage. For 
this act she incurred the life-long enmity of her husband 
and won an honored name in the annals of Sweden. 
Gustavus remained about a week at the parsonage of 
Swedsjo, and when the worthy pastor could no longer 
protect him, he sent him secretly to Swen Elfson, a 
royal forester of great courage and presence of mind, 
living at Isala. Elfson's wife was no unworthy help- 
mate of such a husband. Some of the lieutenant's band 
came in search of her guest one day when she was 
making bread, and Gustavus was warming himself at 
the oven. His look indicated some disquiet and might 
have betrayed him had she not given him a smart blow 
with the ladle with which she was stirring the bread, 
and asked him with an expression of impatience whether 
he had never seen soldiers before, and sent him off to 
his duties in the barn.* 

When he was obliged to shift his quarters again — the 
neighborhood being beset with Danish soldiers, and a 
persistent search made for him — Elfson sent him away 
hidden under some straw in a light wagon. Some 

* This is the subject of one of the series of frescoes in the Cathedral of 
Upsala, which commemorates the most stiking incidents in the life of Gustavus. 



The Reformation in Sweden. 33 

Danish troopers coming up, in lieu of a more formal 
search, thrust their spears into the straw and wounded 
Gustavus. The blood began to trickle down on the 
snow, and would certainly have discovered his hiding 
place had not the quick-witted Elfson, by giving his 
horse unobserved a gash in the leg thus diverted at- 
tention from the point whence the blood issued. 

Having thus eluded the troops by the dexterity of 
his guide, Gustavus arrived safe at Marness. Here he 
lay concealed under a large uprooted fir-tree, supplied 
with food by the peasants. From thence he penetrated 
farther into a forest and took up his abode upon a hill, 
still called the king's hill, which was surrounded by a 
morass, and again found a hiding-place under an old 
overturned fir-tree. On the green before the Church 
at Ratvic, his next retreat, he first publicly addressed 
the Dalesmen. As this incident leads to his probable 
reasons for leaving Dalecarlia, and points to the plan 
which he had devised for rousing his countrymen to 
resist the tyrant king, it may be well, before following 
him farther on his perilous adventures, to dwell for a 
few moments on the probable ground upon which he 
rested the hope that he might then commence and or- 
ganize a patriotic crusade, which would ultimately 
drive the Danes from Sweden. 

Dalecarlia Dalecarlia — the land of dales — is a beautiful 
and the and fertile region of rich valleys, between 
high rugged mountains, beneath which lie 
inexhaustible mines of copper, iron and silver. The 
portion of it in the midst of which Upsala is situated 
is for many leagues a fertile and lovely plain, produc- 
ing abundant crops and sustaining immense herds of cat- 
tle. The indefinite term Dalecarlia is applied also to 
the rugged regions which stretch to the North and the 



34 The Reformation in Sweden. 

West towards Norway, but historical Dalecarlia, and 
as it appears in the record of Gustavus, includes the 
two Lans or provinces of Westeras and Upsala, north 
and west of the province of Stockholm. 

It has been already stated that Gustavus was in- 
duced to resort to Dalecarlia from his confidence in 
the independent character of the Dalesmen. But be- 
yond this general confidence in the character of the 
people, there were historical traditions and advantages 
which would naturally lead him to hope that his ap- 
peal to them to rise and throw off the hated yoke of 
Christian would not be in vain. It was around Upsala 
and its immediate neighborhood that all the heroic na- 
tional traditions, pagan and christian, gathered. With- 
in one Swedish mile of that city was the old Upsala, 
the seat of the first god-king Odin, with his divine 
Aste, his council of gods, with his successors Njord 
and Freya, also gods; and there, descended from them, 
and inheriting the honor due. to a divine parentage, 
reigned the first mortal king, Fiolner. There are the 
three vast mounds under which the first three kings 
Odin, Njord, and Freya, are believed to be buried, and 
at the foot of which for many centuries the kings of 
Sweden pronounced their oaths and received their con- 
secration. It had been the right of the "upper" Swedes, 
inherited from the days of paganism, to dispose of the 
crown, a right which after the introduction of Chris- 
tianity became the subject of many contests. It had 
been the custom for the Upland to nominate the king; 
and after his election and confirmation, the king set 
out upon his ericksgeit, in which he visited all the pro- 
vinces, and received a formal recognition of him as 
their rightful lord. After the other provinces had vin- 
dicated their right to join in the election, the justicia- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 35 

ries, the authorized representatives of the provinces, 
gathered on the meadow of Mora, under the shadow of 
the mound of Odin. The mode of proceeding formally 
by the authority of the provinces in the election of the 
king, is thus described by Geijer: 

44 This assembly was called the Mora Thing. The 
justiciaries of the provinces were to repair thither, 
every one attended by twelve discreet and well-skilled 
men, with the assent of all the resident inhabitants of 
the circuit. The voices of these deputies and the law- 
man (justiciary) constituted the vote of the province. 
The justiciary of Upland voted first and then the rest 
in their order. Thereupon the king swore to the peo- 
ple on the book, with the holy relics in his hand, the 
oath embodied in the law, and lifting up his hand prom- 
ised to God and the people to keep what he had sworn 
and by no means to break it, but rather to augment it 
by every good work, and especially by his royal word. 
In like manner the justiciaries and the people took 
their oath to the king, and by this were bound both 
young and old, the living and the yet unborn, the 
friend and the unfriend, the absent as well as the pres- 
ent. This was called to swear by or at the Mora stone; 
and an old record states that immediately after his elec- 
tion the king was raised upon the stone. It was then 
incumbent upon the king to ride in the manner before 
mentioned on his ericksgeit, or as it is called in the 
land law, ' to ride round the realm with the sun.'" 

It was therefore no doubt not only because of the 
sturdy character of the Dalesmen that Gustavus be- 
took himself to that region, but because he also felt 
that all the associations, traditions and habits of the 
people were such as would enable him to fire their 
hearts with a patriotic passion and ambition to redeem 



36 The Reformation in Sweden. 

their enslaved country. He could remind them that 
it was the prerogative of Upland to cast the first vote 
for the election of the king; and that Christian had 
been imposed upon them without the formality of ap- 
pealing to them for their consent. He could refer to 
the long train of illustrious kings who had received 
their consecration at the Mora stone; and this usurper 
had entered into Stockholm by force of arms and the 
slaughter of their countrymen, and sat there upon a 
throne erected over a pool of the best and noblest 
blood in Sweden. He might naturally have thought 
that if he could receive their recognition as the cham- 
pion whom they selected to commence the work of 
the redemption of their country, such a designation 
might wear something of the character, in the eyes of 
his countrymen, of that old right of Upland to select 
and elect a king, which the other provinces were merely 
summoned to sanction, and which would lead to his 
acceptance by the kingdom as its providentially and 
historically designated leader and commander. That 
such thoughts may have cheered and sustained the 
hunted and heroic fugitive, appears in a high degree 
probable from the fact that he determined to make his 
first address to the Dalesmen in the Mora region and 
near the Mora stone. 

His Apteal The uprooted fir-tree which furnished his hid- 
to the Dales- ing place was not far from the Mora meadow. 
At a moment when Ratvick seemed to be 
free from the Danish troops who were tracking him, 
Gustavus issued from his hiding-place and addressed 
the people on the green before the church. He bade 
the old to consider well, and the young to inform them- 
selves, what a dreadful tyranny the Danes had intro- 
duced into Sweden; and how much they themselves 



The Reformation in Sweden. 37 

had suffered and ventured for the cause of their be- 
loved country. He reminded them of the oppression 
of Erickson, and of the heroic and successful resist- 
ance to it of Englebert. And now all Sweden was 
again under the heel of the tyrant of Denmark, and its 
noblest blood had been shed by him. His own father 
' ; had chosen rather with his associates, the honor-lov- 
ing nobles, to die than to be spared and survive them." 
" If they would now save their land from slavery, he 
would put himself at their head, and fight with them 
for the freedom of the realm." This appeal did not 
produce the impression which he had hoped for. The 
full story of Christian's massacre had not yet pene- 
trated the Dales. The peasants of Ratvick did not 
personally know Gustavus, and his family was not 
immediately associated with their history. They ex- 
pressed their sympathy with him, but declined to com- 
mit themselves to any action until they should have 
consulted other parishes. 

Still less encouraging was the result where he ex- 
pected it would be the greatest, when he addressed the 
peasants on the Mora meadow. To a large assembly 
gathered there he gave a vivid description of the mas- 
sacre at Stockholm, spoke of his own share in the ca- 
lamity, and offered himself to be their leader " to avenge 
the blood that had been spilt, and to teach the tyrant 
that Swedes must be ruled by law, not ground down by 
cruelty." We can readily imagine the patriotic ardor, 
with which he must have made such an appeal. But 
only a few of the peasants were in favor of arming at 
once; the majority of them advised him to go further 
into the woods, and informed him that he was sought 
and tracked by many bands of Danish soldiers. Ut- 
terly discouraged by this reception, Gustavus again 



38 The Reformation in Sweden. 

sought still more distant and lonely hiding-places, and 
at the close of the year crossed the boundary which 
separates the eastern and western dales, intending to 
take refuge in Norway. But soon a reaction took place 
in the minds of this simple-hearted peasantry. The 
story of this reaction should be told in no other words 
than those of Sweden's great historian, Geijer. There 
is a great charm in the beautiful simplicity of the 
narrative, and a romantic interest in the events, in 
that humble and narrow sphere, which determined the 
civil and religious history of Sweden for the ensuing 
centuries. 

"Shortly after Gustavus quitted Ratvick several 
Swedish nobles of the Danish faction arrived there for 
the purpose of securing his person. Some peasants 
who saw them coming in with about a hundred horses 
on the ice of lake Silian, hastened to the church and 
rang the bells. The wind blew towards the upper 
country; a great concourse of people assembled as was 
their wont on occasions of common peril, and the stran- 
gers who had sought refuge partly in the priest's house, 
and partly in the tower, which long after showed marks 
of the Dalesmen's arrows, could only ransom their lives 
by the assurance that they would do no harm to Gus- 
tavus. 

"About the new year there arrived at Mora Lawrence 
Olaverson, a captain of great experience in the service 
of Sten Sture the younger; and shortly after a noble- 
man of Upland named John Michelson. They drew 
so lively a picture of the massacre of Stockholm that 
the bystanders were affected to tears. The ericksgeit 
of the king they said was at hand; his way would be 
marked by the gallows and wheel; all the arms of the 
Swedish peasants would be wrested from them and 



The Reformation in Sweden. 39 

consumed; and if their limbs were left to them un- 
mutilated, a stick in the hand would be the only 
weapon allowed them in the future; the imposition of 
an additional tax for the maintenance of the new troops 
was daily expected. The people murmured and com- 
plained that they had allowed Gustavus Erickson to 
depart. In this their new guests told them they did 
wrong; such a noble leader they stood much in need 
of. Many a worthy Swedish warrior was now wan- 
dering like themselves, fugitives in the forest, who 
would never submit to the dominion of the Danes, but 
lead a free life so long as they might, until Sweden 
should receive from God, a captain and a chief for 
whom they would cheerfully put to hazard their life and 
welfare. " The Dalecarlians now sent off runners on 
snow skates to seek out Gustavus day and night and 
bring him back. They found him in the hamlet of Seln 
in the upper part of the parish of Lima, whence he in- 
tended to seek a pathway across the mountains of 
Norway. 

He returned in their company to Mora, where the 
principal and most influential yeomen of all the parishes 
in the eastern and western dales elected him to be 
" Lord and chieftain over them and the command of the 
realm of Sweden." Some scholars who had arrived from 
Westeras brought with them new accounts of the tyr- 
anny of Christian. Gustavus placed these students in 
the midst of a circle of the peasants to tell their story 
and answer the questions of the crowd. Old men rep- 
resented it as a comfortable sign for the people that as 
often as Gustavus discoursed to them the north wind 
always blew, which was an old token to them that God 
would grant them a good success. Sixteen active 
peasants were appointed to be his body guard; and 



40 The Reformation in Sweden. 

two hundred young men were called his foot-goers. 
The chronicles reckon his reign from this small begin- 
ning; while the Danes and their abettors in Stockholm 
long after continued to speak of him and his party as a 
band of robbers in the woods. 

It would be interesting, if our limits allowed, to 
trace the gradual development of this band of peasants 
into a well-organized army under the skillful hand of 
Gustavus, and to follow the successive steps by which 
he gained the confidence and the enthusiastic affection 
and admiration of his countrymen, and reached a 
position of commanding influence and power. He at 
once displayed all the qualities of a great commander 
and administrator. In the beginning of February, he 
marched to the great copper mine, took its superin- 
tendent prisoner, seized upon all the king's and the 
Danish property in the place, and made his first ban- 
ners from the silks that were captured. Soon after he 
returned to that place with 1,500 men, and from that 
time great and rapid accessions to his ranks took place. 
The king's troops were sent out to meet him, but were 
beaten and driven back. As Gustavus passed into 
Westmanland, the people flocked to his standard; and 
when on S. George's day, the 23rd of April, he orga- 
nized and reviewed his army, it was found to be 15,000 
strong. At this point of his progress, he issued a for- 
mal proclamation of war against Christian. In it he 
declared that Christian had not lawfully been elected 
king; if he had been, he had forfeited his throne by his 
atrocious tyranny and his violation of the laws of Sweden ; 
and he proudly referred to the fact that he had never 
sworn allegiance to him, and that he took up arms 
against him without violating a plighted faith. This 
last fact gave him a prodigious influence with his coun- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 41 

trymen. They gathered about him under the influence 
of patriotic passion and personal devotion which en- 
abled him, after two years of varied successes and 
reverses, to enter Stockholm in triumph on the 21st of 
June, 1523. 

The Exe- After the massacre of Stockholm and the 
cittion of departure of Christian to Denmark, the Bish- 
agiei ops Slaghec and Beldnake were appointed 

administrators of the kingdom in his absence. But 
Slaghec soon left Sweden, having been advanced to the 
Archbishopric of Lund, the primacy of the Danish 
Church. But he did not long enjoy the honors of that 
envied station — the highest to which a northern ec- 
clesiastic could be raised. On the first news of the 
massacre at Stockholm, Johannes Magnus, Canon of 
Linkoping, and afterwards Archbishop of Upsala, had 
hastened to Rome to demand vengeance against Chris- 
tian. The execution of two Bishops so aggravated the 
enormity of that crime in the eyes of the Pope that, 
though unwilling to strike the king on account of the 
emperor, he would not refuse inquiry. M. D. Potentia, 
a Neapolitan monk was dispatched for the purpose with 
secret orders to view the matter in a light as favorable 
as possible for the king; while Christian, advised of 
his danger and determined to save himself, resolved to 
sacrifice Archbishop Slaghec, in order that he might be 
personally exculpated. 

Slaghec had been in the possession of his dignity 
but two months when he was summoned to Copen- 
hagen to answer to the charge of having been the in- 
stigator of the massacre. The charge was readily 
proved. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. 
On the 22nd of June, 1522, the sentence was executed. 
The king had left Copenhagen, and given orders that 



42 The Reformation in Sweden. 

the execution should take place during his absence. 
The scene of it was the old Market-place or Square of 
the city. A gallows was erected and a pile of fagots 
heaped up near the Council House, and here in his rich 
robes, the guilty tool and victim of the guiltier king 
was conducted. Inasmuch as his was the double crime 
of treason against the State and of spiritual treason 
against the Vicar of Christ, in executing two of his 
spiritual servants, he was forced up towards the gal- 
lows, as if to suffer upon it, and then led to the blaz- 
ing pile, where, with no sympathy from the crowd, he 
was burned. 

Theproceed- While Gustavus was making progress in the 
ingsandDe- North, Christian was pursuing those harsh 

throne ment . . t • i n , 

of Chris- and cruel measures which were well calcu- 
tian. lated to hasten his overthrow. He had caused 

the mothers and wives and children of the most distin- 
guished Barons of Stockholm to be conveyed to Den- 
mark. Among these were the mother and the two 
sisters of Gustavus, whom Christian, in spite of the re- 
monstrances and entreaties of his wife, threw into a 
dungeon. Here they perished, and as it was believed 
and charged by Gustavus, by violence. Christian also 
issued an order to his generals and officials to put to 
death all Swedes of distinction who should fall into 
their hands. A massacre similar to that at Stockholm, 
though not on so extensive a scale, only for want of 
sufficient victims, was by his direction perpetrated at 
Abo, the capital of Finland. 

After leaving Sweden to be thus harried and op- 
pressed, Christian made a visit with much splendor to 
his brother-in-law, Charles V., in the Netherlands, to 
secure the dowry of his Queen, and to solicit his aid 
in a war against Duke Frederic of Holstein. The ob- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 43 

ject which he had in view seemed definite, but the 
means which he employed were various and contradic- 
tory, and such as would inevitably bring about failure 
and defeat. He aimed to depress the power of the no- 
bility and clergy; to elevate and gratify and govern 
through the burghers and peasants; to destroy the as- 
cendency of the Hanse towns, and to annex Holstein, 
and so utterly to crush and terrify Sweden as that it 
should lie henceforth passive under his sway. But his 
measures were fitful, incoherent and inconsistent. He 
seemed mastered by a feverish restlessness, which led 
him into projects and policies which crossed and nul- 
lified each other and led to his ultimate ruin. He made 
the Papal bull the pretext for his cruelty in Sweden, 
and yet on his return to Denmark instituted measures 
for the introduction of the Reformation into that king- 
dom. He even opened a correspondence with Luther, 
and invited Carlstadt to Copenhagen; and when in- 
vestigation into the massacre of Stockholm was threat- 
ened, made application to the Pope for the canoniza- 
tion of Scandinavian saints. He raised the infamous 
Slaghec to the Archbishopric of Lund, and afterward, 
as we have seen, threw upon him the responsibility of 
the massacre of Stockholm and consigned him to the 
stake. 

One year after the execution of Slaghec, when Chris- 
tian was levying a new tax upon the kingdom for the 
prosecution of the unpopular war against Holstein, the 
dissatisfaction of the kingdom came to a head, and the 
nobles in council at Viborg, on the 20th of January, 
1523, drew up a deed of renunciation of his authority, 
and declared that they had chosen Frederic, his uncle, 
Duke of Holstein, to fill the vacant throne. This act 
of renunciation enumerated his crimes and his atrocious 



44 The Reformation in Sweden. 

tyranny, and declared that obedience to his intolerable 
rule had ceased to be a duty. The craven and abject 
spirit in which the king pleaded to be allowed a further 
trial, and threw the blame of his maladministration 
upon his advisers, and promised the most absolute 
conformity thereafter to the will of the council, ex- 
hibits that cowardly nature which so often leads to 
cruelty. Although the powerful province of Sealand 
and the nobles of Scania took an oath of fidelity to the 
king, he did not dare to trust them, or even to rely 
upon his army. He collected twenty ships in which 
he placed the public records, the treasures and the 
crown jewels and his wife and child. The evil genius 
of the king, Sigbert, the mother of one of his mistresses, 
who had either prompted or approved of all his cruel- 
ties, and exercised a most sinister influence over him, 
was conveyed to a ship in a chest, that she might es- 
cape the vengeance of the people, by whom she was 
vehemently abhorred. Thus ended the dreadful reign 
of Christian II. in Denmark and Sweden. 

It may be well to follow the fortunes of Christian to 
their wretched end. He first fled to Holland, and re- 
mained there several years. In 1 531, he landed in Nor- 
way with an army of Dutch and Germans, and was well 
received by the inhabitants. But the treaty made by 
Frederic with Sweden and Lubeck, enabled him to 
overthrow the army of Christian and to take him pris- 
oner. Contrary to the pledge of his uncle's commander, 
who had promised him freedom, Christian was carried to 
Sonderberg in the lonely island of Als, and thrown into 
a dark dungeon below the tower. In that wretched 
prison in which light and air could penetrate only 
through a small grated window, which served at the 
same time for the transmission of the scanty food fur- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 45 

nished him, Christian spent seventeen years of his life, 
with a half-witted and deformed Norwegian dwarf for 
his attendant and sole companion. A striking mod- 
ern picture of Christian and his companion in prison, 
in the picture gallery of the palace at Copenhagen, 
leaves an ineffaceable impression upon the mind of the 
beholder. 

On the death of Frederic I., his son, Christian III., 
wished that he might be released, on the pledge that 
he would retire to Germany and make no more efforts 
to recover the throne. But the Danish nobles were 
quite unwilling to rely upon his pledges, and all the 
relief that Christian III. could obtain for him was a re- 
moval to the Kallunberg castle, where he was permitted 
to pass the last ten years of his life in comparative 
comfort, and where he died in 1559, within a few months 
of his namesake, Christian III. 
_ ± ' After the capture of Westeras and an un- 

Gustavusoe- r 

comes Re- successful attack upon Upsala, a convoca- 
gent, Aug. t j on Q f j-hg partisans of Gustavus, which 
claimed to represent the States of Sweden, 
took place at Wadstena on the 24th of August, 1 521. 
There were present sixty nobles and many representa- 
tives of the burghers and the clergy. It was here, at a 
critical crisis of his life, that Gustavus made one of those 
speeches which turned the doubtful balance of events 
decidedly in his favor. A brief summary of it has been 
preserved, sufficient to suggest how stirring must have 
been such an appeal, from one whose heroic resistance 
to the tyrant, and whose romantic adventures and 
splendid personality must have vividly impressed the 
hearts and the imaginations of a people whom in- 
dignation had rendered ready for self-sacrifice and suf- 
fering. He told them that there were but two courses 



46 The Reformation in Sweden. 

for them to pursue: " If they were content to be forever 
slaves to the Dane, and to abandon their possessions 
to the avarice of a greedy neighbor; if they had hearts 
to see the remaining flower of their nobility cut off, 
and could endure that Sweden, which had not only 
supported its own independence, but had given the 
law to other lands, should degenerate into a Danish 
province — then, indeed, they had only to sit down 
quietly and watch the footsteps of the tyrant. But if 
they loved freedom — if they would avenge the innocent 
blood that had run so piteously in their streets — if their 
houses and possessions were dear to them — if they 
would prove themselves worthy sons of their renowned 
fathers, then they would take the sword, and not let it 
sleep until they had dethroned the tyrant and regained 
the crown which he had wrested from their hands. 
Circumstances were most favorable to their enterprise. 
Christian was hated by his own people, and all his at- 
tention was required to secure himself in his hereditary 
dominions. He — Gustavus — had already, with the help 
of the Dalesmen, subdued a large portion of the realm, 
and the chief fortresses were now so hard beset that 
they could not offer a long resistance. The victory 
would soon be complete if they would only combine 
their councils and unite their strength." 

The appeal was decisive. The estates immediately 
offered the crown to Gustavus. " That was the only 
way," they said, " to repay him for his services, and to 
save the kingdom." But Gustavus had the prudence 
and the foresight which made him see that his influence 
at that stage of his progress would be greater if he de- 
clined the crown and accepted a regency, which would 
in effect be kingship in all but the name. He replied 
that "he had taken up arms from zeal and compassion 



The Reformation in Sweden. 47 

for the people. The name of king had already, from 
the abuse of it, begun to have a hateful sound. They 
should unite their strength, and first place themselves 
in a condition to choose a native Swedish king. Then 
whomsoever they should deem fit for the honor, to him 
he would show all loyalty and obedience." 

From this period the military successes of 
proclaimed Gustavus became more decided. After two 
l&*g> 7 une years of siege, Stockholm surrendered. Just 

previous to that event, June 7, 1523, a State 
Council assembled at Strengness, when the newly 
elected Archbishop, Knut, suggested that it was now 
necessary to choose a king, since Christian had ceased 
to be king even of Denmark. All the Council with 
one voice declared for Gustavus. ''He received their 
congratulations with a grave countenance, thanked 
his countrymen for their love and confidence, and said 
that his services did not merit so great a reward, and 
that he was weary of the burden and anxieties he had 
already undergone. He begged them to choose one 
of the old knights and nobles then present, and he 
would give him his truth and allegiance." Tears and 
exclamations and remonstrances interrupted his ad- 
dress. It is a curious fact, in connection with the part 
which he subsequently took and was then prepared to 
take in the Reformation of Sweden, that he at last 
consented to accept the crown upon the pressing 
instances of the Papal Legate. 

Frederic I. of Denmark wrote to the estates of 
Sweden that in accordance with the stipulations of the 
treaty of Calmar, he should be acknowledged King of 
Sweden. They replied that they had already elected 
Gustavus Erickson to be Sweden's king. Thus was 
the union of the treaty of Calmar dissolved, after it 



48 The Reformation in Sweden. 

had lasted 126 years. Previous to the surrender of 
Stockholm, the armies of Gustavus had been success- 
ful in expelling the Danes from the southern part of 
Sweden. On midsummer eve, the 21st of June, Gus- 
tavus made his entrance into Stockholm. Before the 
end of the year, Finland was brought into obedience. 
The country was thus freed from foreign enemies, 
but it was full of the elements of discord and dissat- 
isfaction. That, in the circumstances under which 
Gustavus ascended the throne, he was able to main- 
tain his position, to pacify the kingdom, and develop 
its resources, and above all, that without any popular 
movement towards the Reformation, he was able to 
establish it by virtue of his overmastering character 
and against immense obstacles, without and within 
his kingdom, justly entitles him to the place which 
has been assigned him, by all who have studied his 
career, as one of the greatest men in the whole com- 
pass of European history. 



CHAPTER III. 

FROM THE ELECTION OF GUSTAVUS TO THE THRONE, 
TO HIS COLLISION WITH THE CLERGY, 1 526. 

THE enthusiasm with which the Estates sanc- 
tioned the proposition of Canute, the Provost 
of the Cathedral of Westeras, that Gustavus should 
be elected king, might have animated him to accept 
an office, the enormous difficulties of which he could 
not but have foreseen, but which his patriotic love of 
country would not allow him to evade. Even if he 
had contemplated the task with passionate repug- 
nance, he could not have found it in his heart to 
decline a position which his own agency had made 
it necessary that some one should fill, and which he 
must have known could not have been filled so worth- 
ily and efficiently by any one as by himself. It is not 
often that a crown has been pressed upon any one 
with such genuine and affectionate importunity. The 
following is the account of this remarkable scene given 
by Vertot: 

" The speaker of the Estates (Provost Canute) rep- 
resented to the Assembly the absolute necessity of 
proceeding speedily to the election of a king. Then 
he employed all his art in painting forth the qualities 
of an excellent Prince, one that was vigilant, labori- 
ous, full of courage, and endowed with a sufficient 
stock of valor and prudence to oppose the unjust pre- 



50 The Reformation in Sweden. 

tensions of the Danes to the Swedish crown: that in 
this description they might see and take notice of the 
picture of Gustavus. He concluded that after all the 
services which the Administrator had done to the 
State, and the illustrious proofs he had given of his 
extraordinary endowments and virtues, they were 
obliged, in gratitude to him, and in justice to the in- 
terests of those they represented, to confer the royal 
title and authority upon their benefactor. 

" This discourse was received with an universal 
applause. The nobility and commons, transported 
with their zeal and affection, prevented the senators 
and deputies. The whole assembly proclaimed with 
a loud voice, ' Gustavus, King of Sweden ! ' It was 
impossible to gather the votes, or to proceed accord- 
ing to the usual forms observed in such cases. His 
praises were echoed through the whole convention; 
he was styled the savior and deliverer of his country. 
The peasants and burghers, mingling confusedly with 
the deputies, neglecting all marks of distinction, and 
even forgetting the respect they owed to the senators 
and other lords, struggled and crowded to approach 
the king. The name of Gustavus was repeated by 
every mouth; he was the object of every eye; and all 
in general endeavored to express their joy at his elec- 
tion, and to congratulate their own happiness in hav- 
ing an opportunity to contribute to his advancement." 
Difficulties ^he town °f Strengness was itself a proof 
of the Kings of one of the enormous difficulties — the des- 
Position. olation of the country — which he was called 
upon immediately to confront. It had become almost 
a ruin through the ravages of civil war. This condi- 
tion of the town, suggestive of that of the whole 
country, had impressed the council with the convic- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 51 

tion that there was no choice but between utter 
national ruin, and the overthrow of the tyranny of 
Christian. This conviction was deepened when Gus- 
tavus made his public entry into Stockholm. Half of 
the houses were empty; and of the population of the 
city on the accession of Christian only one fourth re- 
mained. To fill up the gap the king invited the 
citizens of other towns to settle there, and offered 
them great inducements to do so. This invitation 
he was compelled to renew twelve years after, "see- 
ing," he said, " that Stockholm had not revived from 
the days of King Christian." And these were speci- 
mens of the condition of most of the towns and rural 
estates of the lower and more populous portion of the 
kingdom. 

The power of the great lords was another obstacle 
in the way of the speedy settlement of the kingdom. 
One effect of the union of Sweden to Denmark had 
been greatly to increase their influence. According 
to the terms of the union, the Council, in the absence 
of the king, governed the kingdom. As members of 
the Council, the great nobles who composed it had con- 
stant opportunities to increase their exclusive privi- 
leges, to enlarge their estates, and to become more 
independent of the supreme but distant authority of 
the king. Many of the crown fiefs had been appropri- 
ated by them to their own use, and were thus in the 
inevitable process of passing into their permanent pos- 
session. Many of the difficulties of the king arose from 
this source. With characteristic foresight he saw that 
this contest with the nobles for the recovery of the 
crown and church lands would at once arise; and ac- 
cordingly he availed himself of the first enthusiasm 
created by his wonderful success to propose to the 



52 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Council " whether he might not freely dispose of the 
crown fiefs, as the law book declares, without ill will ?" 
During the union, and especially during the long ab- 
sence of King John, the kingdom seemed about to be 
parceled out into principalities, under a few of the 
great magnates who were most powerful in the Coun- 
cil. This state of things it was impossible for the king 
immediately to change. The General Council at Stock- 
holm had constituted branches in the various provinces, 
in which some members of the Central Council sat 
and exercised a predominant influence. Thus Gustavus 
found himself at once confronted with an oligarchy 
which had spread a net-work of influence and of organ- 
ization over all the kingdom, and the members of which 
had possessed themselves of a large portion of the 
Royal domains. These it was necessary to recover 
without exciting to revolt the powerful lords, whose 
loyalty was the condition of continued possession of the 
throne. It was an immense difficulty. How wisely, 
by personal influence, by intimidation, and by the 
stern exercise of power, where it was called for, he so 
far overcame it as to recover most of the crown lands, 
and to become, not the mere agent of the great lords, 
but their master, we shall see in the progress of the 
history. 

The turbulent independence of the people caused the 
king in the commencement of his reign frequent and 
most vexatious difficulties. The circumstances in which 
the people had been called to intervene in opposition 
to the Danish kings, had made them exacting and tur- 
bulent and difficult to satisfy. This was especially the 
case with the Dalesmen. At the call of Englebert 
they had expelled the tyrant Ericson, and made their 
leader Regent of the kingdom. From that period, 



The Reformation in Sweden. 53 

proud of their success, they had put forth many pre- 
tensions. The native Regents, Englebert, and the 
three successive Stures, and the one native king, 
Charles Canutson, were compelled to profess to de- 
pend wholly on their support. In order to protect 
themselves from rival aspirants to their office, they 
found it necessary to flatter and conciliate the people, 
by acknowledging their dependence on them, and by 
conformity to their democratic tastes and habits. The 
threatened partition of the kingdom among the great 
lords led to a counter-development and manifestation 
of popular power. During the troubled times, when 
the Danish government was powerless, the people in 
the provinces often assumed self-government, took up 
arms and formed alliances when they were dissatisfied 
with the local lords or authorities placed over them by 
the Regent. This was the case more frequently in 
upper than in lower Sweden. Hence, in consequence 
of the immense services which the Dalecarlians, and 
Northern Sweden generally, had rendered to Gusta- 
vus, he found them subsequently insubordinate, clam- 
orous for special privileges, and unwilling to bear 
their proportionate burdens of taxation and of mili- 
tary service. 

The influence of the Church too was decidedly adverse 
to the person and policy of the king. The Church was 
in fact a foreign power established in the kingdom, 
rather than a constituent part of it. Its great dignitaries 
had generally been partisans of the Union; because they 
received their appointments from the Pope, through 
the influence or dictation of the Danish crown. The 
lower clergy, dependent on their superiors, assumed 
the same position. They had always been obnoxious 
to the patriotic party. Englebert was violently hostile 



54 The Reformation in Sweden. 

to the Bishops; and the three Regents Sture were con- 
stantly involved in contests with them. The execrated 
Archbishop Trolle opened the way for the tyrant Chris- 
tian to the throne. In the war which ensued the ex- 
asperation against the bishops, the clergy and the 
monks found expression in many acts of violence. 
Their great riches furnished a tempting resource to 
Gustavus to supply the needs of his army; and the li- 
centiousness of the priests and monks seemed to him 
to condone reprisals for the outrages which the nation 
had for centuries endured without redress. 

But the most immediately pressing of all the diffi- 
culties of the king were financial. He had been com- 
pelled to borrow money and secure ships and men and 
materials from Lubeck to carry on the war. That sharp 
commercial town pressed him hard and over-promptly 
for payment. On the very day of his election as king, 
a deputation from Lubeck demanded an immediate 
liquidation of his debt to the city. He requested an 
extension of the time. This was granted only on hard 
conditions, for he had distinctly pledged himself for 
the payment so soon as the government should be de- 
finitely settled. He was compelled to agree that Sweden 
should conclude no treaty with Christian or any other 
power without the consent of Lubeck; that on the sur- 
render of Stockholm and Calmar, all goods found in 
them which the Lubeck and Dantzic merchants should 
claim upon oath as theirs, because not paid for, should 
be restored to them; and that the wares of the same 
cities should be admitted free of duty; and that the 
whole foreign trade of Sweden should be confined to 
the Hanse towns. It was a most ungenerous advantage 
taken of the embarrassing circumstances in which the 
king was placed; and the demand that the government 



The Reformation in Sweden. 55 

should be made responsible — for that in effect it was 
— for the unfulfilled obligations of private merchants, 
was unprecedented and grossly unjust. But the king 
was not in a position openly to resist these demands. 
In an address and appeal to the people, Gustavus stated 
the urgent necessities of his position, with a view no 
doubt to prepare them for and to vindicate in advance 
the radical measure which he was about to adopt. It 
is an indication of his personal feeling towards the 
Church, that he did not hesitate to lay his hands upon 
that portion of her wealth which was regarded as most 
sacred, and the appropriation of which to secular pur- 
poses would be considered by the devout children of 
the Church, not robbery only, but the grossest sacrilege. 
The Church was in possession of two thirds of the landed 
property of the kingdom; but as that could not be made 
immediately available for his urgent needs, he resolved 
to appropriate the sacred vessels used in the public 
services, and the reliquaries, and the gold and gems, 
the gifts of kings and nobles, in the treasuries of churches 
and of convents. It is a striking proof of the realized 
absolute necessity of his government to their national 
existence, that such a measure could have been carried 
out without a revolt upon the part of the people, who 
had thus far shown no desire to throw off the Roman 
yoke. It seems scarcely credible that in the then con- 
dition of the public conscience, the following demands 
could have been obeyed: "We therefore enjoin you," 
says this document in the address to the clergy and 
the commissions appointed to carry out the royal will, 
" without delay to search in your churches and monas- 
teries, both in towns and in the adjoining country, and 
observe what can best be spared and select from the 
valuables — to wit, the monstrances , the chalices > or what- 



56 The Reformation in Sweden. 

ever else of the kind there may be, and also any coin 
which may come to hand, and send them here by a sure 
messenger, without delay or negligence. When we re- 
ceive the same, and know the amount, we will give an 
acknowledgment, so that the debt shall be duly paid 
when the state shall be in better circumstances." But 
all the devices of the king to raise revenue during the 
early part of his reign did not suffice to meet the wants 
of the Government. He was thwarted in many of his 
plans and defeated in many efforts to bring his king- 
dom into peace and order, for the want of money. 
None but a man of commanding ability and fertile in 
resources, and with a strong hold upon the affection 
and confidence of his people, could have worked his 
way through and over the enormous difficulties which 
beset his path. 

Last and not least of the difficulties with which 
Gustavus was called to struggle was the distrust ana 
opposition of the priesthood. We have seen that the 
priesthood, high and low, were partisans of the Danish 
rule. This alone would have sufficed to have made 
them the king's secret foes. But when he laid his hands 
upon the sacred vessels and silver shrines and lamps, 
the golden crucifixes and the gem-encrusted caskets of 
holy relics, this distrust passed into thinly veiled and 
holy horror. While it could have been scarcely possi- 
ble that the growing alienation of the mind of the king 
should have been wholly disguised, he yet abstained, 
during the first two years of his reign, from any open 
opposition to the doctrine or discipline of the Church; 
although he did not altogether escape some personal 
collisions with its administrators. It was, as we shall 
see, one of the main problems which he was called to 
solve, to prepare the way gradually for the abolition of 



The Reformation in Sweden. 57 

the Papacy and yet to do this so cautiously as not to 
create a rebellion, which in the early part of his reign, 
before his power was consolidated, he might have been 
unable to overcome. His position in this respect was 
not unlike that of Queen Elizabeth, and his cautious 
policy was quite the counterpart of hers. But on her 
side there were two great advantages which were want- 
ing to Gustavus. She was the recognized lawful heir to 
the throne, in a country where the principle of royal he- 
reditary right was a religious dogma, and where the 
Protestant principles which she aimed to introduce and 
establish, were already fervently held by a large and 
intelligent portion of the people. Gustavus on the 
contrary was an elected king, and the principles of the 
Reformation had made no progress and were scarcely- 
known to exist when he ascended the throne. 
The Intro- The Lutheran doctrines had been introduced 
duction of secretly into Sweden by Olaus and Laurentius 
ism into Petri a few years before Gustavus was pro- 
Sweden. claimed king. They were native Swedes, 
the sons of a smith at Orebo, and they had studied 
with great distinction under Luther and Melancthon, 
and had been encouraged by them to return and labor 
to evangelize their native land. They were learned 
and intrepid men, who were animated with holy zeal, 
tempered by discretion. In 1520 Olaus was made a 
Canon of Strengness and in secret preached against in- 
dulgences, vows of celibacy, the worship of saints and 
images, prayers for the dead, auricular confession and 
the power of the Pope. The shameless traffic in indul- 
gences, which prevailed in Germany and Switzerland, 
and which aroused the opposition of Luther and Zwingli, 
also stimulated the zeal of the brothers Petri, to a more 
open denunciation of the Papal claims. During the aw- 



58 The Reformation in Sweden. 

ful scenes which occurred while Christian II. had pos- 
session of the kingdom, and the war which followed, 
the preaching of the Petri attracted but little attention. 
But while these events prevented a wide dissemination 
of their doctrines, they at the same time allowed them 
to labor unmolested. The king, who had corresponded 
with Luther in 1524, advanced Olaus to the Rectorship 
of the Church in Stockholm, and appointed his brother 
Laurentius a professor in the University of Upsala. At 
this time the king had become a firm but unavowed 
believer in the doctrines of Luther. After the close of 
the war the preaching of the two brothers, from the 
vantage-ground of their high position, began to attract 
much attention. As it now met with violent opposition 
Gustavus appointed a discussion of the points in dispute 
to be held in his presence. The result was, as the king 
had foreseen, favorable to the Reformers. In conse- 
quence of this discussion twelve questions were prepared 
for examination in an assembly of divines to be ap- 
pointed by the king. 

These questions were examined in a con- 

A conference r . . . t TT . , r^i ' , 

of Lutheran ierence held at Upsala at Christmas, 1524. 
and Roman Olaus Petri, in the presence of the king, 
challenged the Canons of Upsala to defend 
the doctrines of the Roman Church. At first the 
Chapter declined to engage in the controversy, but 
finally appointed Peter Galle as their champion. The 
questions submitted involved the chief topics in con- 
troversy between the Lutheran and the Roman Church. 
They were as follows: " Whether God's Word is the 
sole rule of faith; what are the limits of Church author- 
ity; whether the supremacy of the Pope and his agents 
be for Christ or against Him; whether man can be 
saved by his own works and deservings or otherwise 



The Reformation in Sweden. 59 

than by God's grace and mercy; whether men have a 
right to order the administration of the Lord's Supper 
in a way different from Christ's institution; whether 
there is any scriptural warrant for the doctrine of 
purgatory; and lastly, whether the Saints are to be 
worshiped and prayed to, and are our protectors, pa- 
trons, mediators and intercessors before God." 

A sharp discussion followed, in which Peter Galle 
relied upon the Fathers, and Olaus on the Script- 
ures alone. After it had continued some time, it was 
stopped by the king at a point where it was becoming 
violent, and would have been likely to have ended in 
commotion and confusion. He requested the dispu- 
tants to reduce their arguments to writing, that they 
might be considered more fully in a larger conference or 
synod of the clergy. These productions were printed 
and circulated through the kingdom, and prepared the 
way in the more remote portions of the country for 
the reception of the Reformed faith. But the most 
effective publication on the Protestant side was that 
of the Bible translated into Swedish by Chancellor 
Lars Anderson at the king's command. This was 
issued in the following year. 

The manifold complications of the king made it 
impossible that he should yet appear as the apologist 
or champion of the Reformation. It was evidence of 
great moral force on his part, that he resolutely pro- 
tected the Reformers, and refused to allow them to 
be persecuted or silenced. The Bishop of Linkoping 
urged the king not to shield those who promulgated 
the new heresy, and to prohibit the sale of Luther's 
writings. The king replied that he was bound to pro- 
tect every one of his subjects until they should be 
convicted of some crime or civil offense. Thus early 



60 The Reformation in Sweden. 

did he announce the noble principle, unfortunately not 
adopted by all the Reformers, from which he never sub- 
sequently swerved, that religious opinions when they 
did not pass into, or were not made the plea for crimes 
against the State or against the laws, should not be 
punished by the government. To the demand which 
was made that he should prohibit the sale of Luther's 
books he gave the following firm and calm reply: " As 
to the request that we should forbid the purchase of 
Luther's books, we do not see how we can grant it 
until we hear them condemned by impartial judges, 
especially since books against Luther are brought 
into the country. It seems, therefore, according to 
our poor understanding that there should be an oppor- 
tunity of reading the one as well as the other." Under 
the circumstances in which he was placed it was 
a brave and direct reply, when mere policy, uninflu- 
enced by conscience, would have led to evasion or 
equivocation. 

For in addition to those general and perma- 
Gustavus nent difficulties of which we have spoken, 
against Sev- Gustavus was at that time eno-aged in a 

erin A'orby. . . „ , , , ° ° 

struggle against beverm JNorby, a partisan 
of Christian, who had taken possession of the island of 
Gothland in the name of the dethroned king, and ex- 
ercised there a very independent sway. Norby was a 
brilliant sailor and soldier of fortune, who combined 
the characteristics of the old Vikings, of the Italian 
condottieri of the middle ages, and of those contempo- 
rary knights in Germany, who, like Ulrich Von Hutten 
and Sickengen, were accomplished scholars. The pow- 
erful little capital of Gothland— Wisby — was one of the 
rich Hanse towns of the middle ages, the rival and the 
peer of prosperous Lubeck. It was surrounded by 



The Reformation in Sweden. 6i 

powerful walls, which were fortified by massive and 
lofty towers, and within it was an abode of wealth and 
a hive of industry. Its present dilapidated condition 
still attests its former greatness; for its walls and towers 
remain, and within the circuit of a mile are the ruins 
of a dozen churches, some of them having almost the 
solidity and size, and elaborate architecture of cathe- 
drals, in which the merchants and citizens of various 
nationalities and tongues were accustomed to worship. 
But as its commercial prosperity declined and its pop- 
ulation diminished, its large shipping and its impover- 
ished citizens were often employed in piratical adven- 
tures. This island with its fortified position and its 
piratical reputation furnished an asylum and a base of 
operations, precisely suited to the character and purposes 
of Norby. At an early period it had been colonized by 
Sweden, was converted to Christianity by S. Olaf, in 
his own peculiar militant style of missionary zeal, and 
had acknowledged allegiance and paid tribute to the 
parent state. The Swedish historian Geijer traces the 
rise of the Hanseatic League to this prosperous com- 
mercial community; and it was not until after the middle 
of the fourteenth century, 1361, that, in conflict with 
the greatly superior power of Denmark, it received the 
fatal blow from which it never rallied. 

When therefore Norby took possession of the island 
he was at once welcomed by its inhabitants as its lord. 
He proceeded to enlarge those piratical enterprises to 
which they looked for their prosperity; and he enriched 
the impoverished city by unlading all the booty from 
the ships which he captured; and then, sending them 
away empty, he wished them a good voyage and a 
happy return, with fresh and fuller cargoes. He even 
issued coins, as an independent prince, with his own 



62 The Reformation in Sweden. 

name on the one side, and the arms of Gothland — 
most inappropriate to its then position — a lamb with a 
standard on the other! The life of a sea rover at this 
time in the Baltic, notwithstanding laws against it, 
instead of covering those who practiced it with infamy, 
seems to have invested them with a glamor of romantic 
adventure, something like that which invested the 
Vikings of old, especially when, as in the case of 
Norby, it was professedly adopted from loyalty to a 
deposed and lawful sovereign. 

Gustavus was made to feel that he could not have 
secure possession of his throne so long as Norby and 
his little kingdom furnished a rallying point and a 
nucleus for all the remaining opposition to his reign. 
Moreover there was good reason to believe that the 
aspiring adventurer aimed at dispossessing Gustavus 
and obtaining the regency of the kingdom by a mar- 
riage with the widow of the late administrator, Christina 
Gyllenstierna. Her own conduct and language gave 
countenance to this belief. When a rumor to that effect 
was spread among the Dalesmen to excite them to 
revolt, and when Gustavus, in order to defeat such a 
scheme, proposed — what was equivalent to a command 
— that she should be united to Jno. Tureson, the son 
of the high steward, she gave an explanation of her 
relation to Norby, which the king affected to accept. 
" She was afraid," she said, V that Norby had given out 
the year before that she was betrothed to him, and that 
he held her written engagement. But he could not 
prove that she had plighted her faith either to himself 
or to any other man since the death of her husband. 
She had written to him but once, and then told him 
that she was not disposed again to marry; but if she 
were inclined he would be the man of her choice. Now 



The Reformation in Sweden. 63 

she did not know whether he had so understood these 
words, as though she had meant to take him for her 
wedded lord; if he had, he was mistaken. True, she 
had sent him a gold ring and tablet; but this was only 
to testify the sense she entertained of the courteous 
attention he had paid her when she was captive in 
Denmark." Skillful words certainly, but not such as 
could exonerate her from disloyalty to her own king, 
in maintaining such close and friendly relations with 
his avowed and open enemy! 

It was with no little reluctance that Gustavus en- 
tered upon the task of capturing Wisby and destroy- 
ing the power of Norby. He no doubt felt that, even 
if his throne was not endangered, his prestige would 
be undermined, and his influence lessened, so long as 
a powerful enemy could keep the field against him. 
An expensive expedition which strained the resources 
of the king, was sent to Gothland and took possession 
of all the island except Wisby; and after his unsuccess- 
ful siege, the capital was finally surrendered to the 
Danish king. Gustavus was chagrined and dissatis- 
fied with this result, and resolved never again to en- 
gage in any enterprise outside of his own dominions; 
but his last formidable and active enemy was now out 
of his way, and he hoped to be able to give his undi- 
vided attention to the welfare of Sweden, and to the 
promotion of the Reformation.* 

* The remainder of Norby 's adventurous and tumultuous life was in keep- 
ing with that which we have described above. He escaped with a remnant 
of his fleet from Gothland, endeavored in vain to enlist Frederic of Denmark 
in a war with Gustavus, proceeded to Russia to exasperate the Czar against 
both Sweden and Denmark, and, failing in that effort, was imprisoned in 
Moscow for three years. Liberated at the intercession of the Emperor, he 
entered into his service, and was killed at the siege of Florence, in 1530. 
That his piratical career enhanced rather than diminished his fame appears 



64 The Reformation en Sweden. 

Commotions Everywhere we see the Reformation at its 

Caused by rise discredited and hindered by the ex- 
Anabaptists. travagance5 Q f the Anabaptists. It was so 
in Germany and Bohemia. The same little group of 
Anabaptist leaders appear in succession in Wittemberg 
and in Stockholm. It was in the same year, if-- in 
which the discussion took place before Gustavus that 
Melchior Rink, a furrier, and Knipperdoling, both from 
Munster, arrived in Stockholm. They soon met with 
supporters, and obtained possession of the principal 
churches, where they preached from the Book of Rev- 
elation on the reign of the Saints in the Millennium, 
which was soon to come. Their converts and parti- 
sans, excited to a high pitch of enthusiasm, broke into 
churches and convents, destroyed the images, organs 
and ornaments, which they found there, and threw the 
fragments into the streets and market-places. Olaus 
Petri's ineffectual efforts to quell the disturbances did 
not save him from the sharp rebukes of Gustavus. 
Some of the authors of these disturbances were impris- 
oned, and some banished from the kingdom, and for- 
bidden to return. But the affair gave great scandal, 
and created fresh prejudices against the Lutheran doc- 
trines. This was increased in some of the provinces by 
the Antinomian doctrines and the loose lives of preachers 
who had been infected with Anabaptist opinions. Gus- 
tavus met this difficulty with his usual skill and firm- 

from an eulogistic Latin poem to his memory by the forme:- Vice- I. ancellor 
to Christian II. , which ends thus: 

" That life which Moscow's dungeons could not quell, 
Nor Neptune quench amid his boundless swell, 
In Latium sunk, the citadel of fame, 
That through the -world r-y J U spread so ^ 

(History of Gustavos.Vasa. Jno. Murkay, 1S32.) 



The Reformation in Sweden. 65 

ness. While making his Ericksgeit through the king- 
dom, he often called the Evangelical clergy around 
him and addressed them. He exhorted them to pro- 
ceed cautiously in dealing with error and errorists, not 
to dwell harshly on topics which might give offense, 
not to carp at popes and bishops, for the ignorant peo- 
ple were immediately offended and said that they 
preached a new faith. The pure doctrine of the Gos- 
pel he would certainly uphold and spread over the king- 
dom; but he complained that they did not instruct the 
people properly ; that some spoke scoffingly of the saints ; 
that some condemned good works, not distinguishing 
those of man's device from those which God Himself 
had ordained; that some had put aside holy days to- 
gether with the comfortable Gospels and Epistles ap- 
pointed for them; and finally that many led lazy and 
scandalous lives. In these informal condones ad clemm 
the king had reference to the errors and misdoings of 
both Papists and extreme and fanatical Protestants, 
and showed himself a sound theologian as well as a 
skillful administrator. But it cannot be denied that, 
pressed on many sides with the conflicting demands 
of his position, the necessity imposed upon him to be 
at the same time a conservative and a reformer, led 
him sometimes into dissimulations difficult to be re- 
conciled with godly simplicity and sincerity. 

The king's strong conviction that the moral 

The Kind's , . , . r r . . . . . 

Treatment and material welfare 01 the kingdom de- 
&***£?***** pended upon taking from the clergy their 

and Monks. ^ . ., 11 . • , • 1 , , 

enormous privileges, and detaching their hold 
upon the superstitious devotion of the people, through 
a reformation of doctrine, led him to adopt a definite 
and determined policy. In this determination he was 
greatly encouraged and confirmed by his able Chan- 



66 The Reformation in Sweden. 

cellor, Lars Anderson. Anderson had been an ec- 
clesiastic; but from a secret rejection of the Romish 
system rather than from a cordial adoption of Luther- 
anism, he abandoned the clerical for the secular life; 
and by his great knowledge and administrative ability 
soon rose to the highest civil office in the kingdom, 
and became the confidential counselor of the king. It 
was from the standpoint of a statesman that he urged 
the king to prepare the way for the establishment of 
Lutheranism by depriving the clergy, first of many of 
their prerogatives and immunities, and then of the 
great possessions which these unjust advantages had 
enabled them to accumulate. Very skillfully did he 
begin to deprive them of those traditional or recog- 
nized rights which weighed most heavily upon the 
people, in order that they might be won to approve 
and sanction his proceedings. His measures in this 
direction and to this end are thus described by Vertot 
(p. 21 1): "The Swedish curates had assumed a right 
to impose a kind of tax upon certain public sins, and 
with a great deal of vigor exacted considerable fines 
from those who took the diversion of hunting or fishing 
in time of divine service, and those who abused women 
to whom they were contracted before the solemn cele- 
bration of the sacrament of Marriage. This privilege 
was abrogated by one of the king's proclamations, and 
the priests were prohibited to exact such impositions 
for the future. By another declaration they were for- 
bidden to use ecclesiastical censures against their 
private enemies or creditors. The bishops and their 
officials had extended the jurisdiction of the Church 
so far beyond its ordinary limits that they claimed a 
divine right to take cognizance of all sorts of affairs 
that had the least relation to religion. An oath made 



The Reformation in Sweden. 67 

in a bargain, the interposition of a clergyman which 
was frequently begged for that purpose, or the least 
dispute which arose about a contract of marriage were 
reckoned sufficient grounds to remove a cause from 
the ordinary courts of justice. But Gustavus abro- 
gated their jurisdiction entirely, insinuating at the 
same time that the hearing and determination of suits 
were inconsistent with the function and duty of clergy- 
men. And by the same declaration it was ordained 
that the clergy should be obliged to refer their differ- 
ences to secular judges, who were authorized to take 
cognizance of all the affairs in the kingdom." 

These were sweeping innovations. But Gus- 
itationofthe tavus proceeded farther. He forbade bish- 
Priviicgesof p S> on an y pretense of right or of specific 

bequest, to take the property of deceased 
clergymen to the prejudice of their lawful heirs. As 
he saw that the Lutheranism which he secretly fos- 
tered progressed in the kingdom, he continued to 
issue injunctions which limited more and more the 
privileges of the bishops and the clergy. 

Having thus prepared the way, the king was reso- 
lute in carrying out the policy which he had determined 
to adopt in reference to the ecclesiastical estates. It 
was estimated by him that the clergy were in posses- 
sion of two thirds of the entire wealth of the kingdom; 
and he insisted that it was but just that they should 
bear a proportionate part of the burdens of the State, 
and not allow them to be borne only by the poorer 
classes, upon whom they had always pressed heavily, 
and in the present exigency would fall with crushing 
weight. As early as 1522 he had demanded aid from 
the clergy; and again in 1523 another requisition in the 
form of a loan was made; and in the three years sue- 



68 The Reformation in Sweden. 

ceeding the same demands continued to be enforced. 
When these continued exactions were followed by a 
dearth of food so severe as almost to amount to a 
famine in 1527 and 1528, the clergy did not fail to rep- 
resent it as a visitation of God upon the kingdom for 
the oppression of the Church and the favor shown to 
the new heresy of Luther. These charges Gustavus 
met by the statement that it was but just that the 
clergy should contribute to the expenses of the State; 
that they were not taxed in larger proportion to their 
wealth than other classes; and that much of the prop- 
erty which he demanded of them was lying idle, and 
should be rendered available for the uses of the State. 
He declared that when he compelled them to bear 
their portion of the public burdens, and endeavored to 
protect the people from their exactions, they at once 
raised the clamor that all these measures were adopted 
with a view to introduce the Lutheran heresy and 
overthrow the Church. In replying to this charge, 
Gustavus insisted that in this proceeding he acted 
wholly in the character of a just ruler, and not as a 
Reformer. Without denying that he had protected 
Reformers, he declared that his protection of his sub- 
jects from unjust exactions and the arbitrary will of 
the priesthood should not be laid to the charge of in- 
novating and reforming religious zeal. 

His language upon the subject is very emphatic. He 
does not allow the bishops and priests to escape his spe- 
cific charges by hiding them under the counter charge 
of Lutheran heresy and schism. " Certain monks and 
priests," he writes in 1526 to the people of Heisingfors, 
" have brought us into scandal, chiefly for that we. blame 
their irregularities." Among these the king reckons 
that if a man owe anything, they refuse him the Sac- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 69 

rament, instead of pursuing their demand by law; if a 
poor man on a holy day kills a bird, or draws a fish 
from a stream, he is forthwith obliged to pay a fine to 
the bishop and the provost for Sabbath-breaking; that 
the laymen have not the same rights against the priests 
as the priests have against them; that the priests took 
the inheritance of priests dying intestate, passing over 
their heirs; that the clergy fraudulently possess them- 
selves of much of crown property, and embezzle the 
king's proportion of judicial fines; when they perceive 
that we look to the interest of the crown, which is in- 
cumbent on us by reason of our kingly dignity, they 
straightway declare that we wish to bring in a new faith 
and Luther's doctrine; whereas the matter is not other- 
wise than ye have now heard, that we will .not permit 
them to give loose to their avarice, contrary to law." 
While it is evident that no devout Romanist could 
have used this language, and adopted these energetic 
measures, it is equally clear that they might have been 
employed by a just and decided king, who had no ten- 
dency to Lutheranism, nor even any religious convic- 
tions. They betray a rejection of Romanism, but not 
an adoption of Lutheranism. 

Intrigues ^ was ^ ut a ^ ew montns after his election 
against the that there were plots on foot to dethrone 
lng ' him, and to restore the house of Sture to 

the head of the government. It seemed to be a cir- 
cumstance favorable to the stability of his throne, that 
on his accession all the bishoprics, with the exception 
of two, were vacant. It might have fairly been ex- 
pected that those whom he appointed would be loyal 
to him. But they all, sooner or later, became his 
enemies. Peter Jacobson, called Sunanvader, who 
had been chancellor of Steno Sture the Younger, was 



70 The Reformation in Sweden. 

choson Bishop of Westeras by the Dalesmen, and 
confirmed by the king. But in less than a year he was 
detected in a conspiracy to overthrow Gustavus, and 
reinstate the house of Sture. He was deprived of his 
office, as was also the newly elected Bishop Canute, who 
appeared in his defense. The deposed bishops pro- 
ceeded to the Dales, and there fanned the conspiracy 
which they had before kindled. Their intrigues with 
the Dalesmen led the latter to adopt a high tone 
towards Gustavus, as if, being a king of their making, 
they could direct him or depose him. But it was not 
long before they found that they had in him a master 
who was just and generous to the loyal, but who could 
be stern and terrible to the rebellious. This they had 
not learned as yet, and hence they assumed to address 
him in the tone of those who felt that he would be 
compelled to yield. Under the dictation of the two 
bishops they wrote to him that they would not permit 
him to impose one tax after another upon the churches, 
and convents, and priests, and monks, and people. 
They renounced their allegiance to him unless he 
procured for them cheaper markets, and drove for- 
eigners from his service, and cleared himself from the 
charge of having imprisoned Christina Gillenstierna, 
and poisoned or banished her son. They reminded 
the king of his obligation to them "when he was a 
ftiendless wanderer in the woods," and how ill he had 
performed the promises which he made to them. 

These intrigues were implicated with others which 
rendered the position of the king for a time perilous 
and doubtful. So far from having imprisoned Christina, 
Gustavus had just secured her release from a Danish 
prison, when this charge was made. She proceeded to 
Calmar and there met her eldest son, Nicholas, who 



The Reformation in Sweden. 71 

was then twelve years of age, and whom the bishops 
wished to elevate to the throne. It was at this time 
that Norby, at the instigation of the bishops, attempted 
to secure the hand of Christina, with a view to elevate 
her son to the throne, of which they might be the joint 
guardians. While Gustavus suspected Christina as se- 
cretly favoring this arrangement, he professed to regard 
it as the mere gossip of the disaffected, and took the 
young Sture to his court for a time, and then sent him 
to his mother, who had repaired to Upsala. His death 
soon after removed the nucleus around which these in- 
trigues and treasons gathered. For it was the double 
object of many of these conspirators to elevate the house 
of Sture and restore King Christian. We learn that 
this was the design of one party from a written promise 
of the fugitive king, that if Lord Severin should marry 
the Lady Christina, and thereby come into the govern- 
ment of Sweden, he might hold the kingdom absolutely 
as the king's Lieutenant, for a yearly tribute. He even 
issued a public letter to the effect that he had trans- 
ferred his power to Norby until he should himself return 
to his dominions. Norby in the spring of 1525 made a 
descent upon Scania, and all the province except Malmo 
again did homage to Christian. And at the same time 
that this treason was working in the south of the king- 
dom, the rebel bishops were endeavoring to stir up the 
dissatisfied Dalesmen to open opposition. But in this 
they met with so little success, — the Dalesmen much 
preferring to reprove Gustavus than to fight with him, 
— that ultimately they were compelled to flee to Norby. 
The Atti- ^ was un der these complicated and harass- 
tude of the ing difficulties that Gustavus exhibited at 
tns ' once the enormous energy and resources of 

his genius, and that stern side of his character which 



72 The Reformation in Sweden. 

sometimes passed into cruelty, which overawed at 
length all but the boldest and most desperate of his 
enemies. His firm attitude at the period, and his de- 
termination to put down the priesthood which so con- 
stantly employed its spiritual power to further temporal 
interests, appears in his spirited reply to the Dean of 
Upsala, who had pointed out to him what he regarded 
as the chief cause of popular discontent. " You write," 
replies the king, " that the people were angry that the 
Bishop of Westeras has not a sufficient number of re- 
tainers. We should rather expect them to be angry if 
they came with a multitude, burdening first one and 
then another; but you and many others, perhaps, may 
take offense thereat; you who cannot, or will not, think 
otherwise that that to the office of a bishop is attached 
some great worldly dignity, notwithstanding that the 
Scriptures hold them to be servants of all, and that 
they can fulfill this duty far better with few retainers 
than with many. 

" You write further that it is highly desirable that 
nothing be violently or unjustly taken from the churches 
and monasteries. Would to God that our forefathers 
had been as careful that nothing had been filched from 
the crown and nobles by fraud and imposture, as folks 
nowadays take care to keep what they have obtained, 
whether by right or by wrong. We do not know whether 
we have taken anything violently from churches and 
monasteries as you write; but we know that we have 
restored them what their enemies had sliced away, and 
preserved what was threatened to be sliced away in 
like manner. 

" Another person is now bestirring himself — I mean 
King Christian — making much ado to regain the King- 
dom of Sweden — which God forbid ! You will find, 



The Reformation in Sweden. 73 

should he succeed, that he will filch more from you 
and from others than what we have either done or wish 
to do; and if you and the Chapter had well considered, 
you would have been quite as well advised had you de- 
fended our proceedings, instead of aggravating the case, 
whenever the priests who were under you had taken 
them ill or misunderstood them. If you yourself had 
given the matter due consideration, you, Master John, 
had no good grounds to fall in so readily with those 
who batter at our shield; and though you write that 
you do so with the best intentions, we can well per- 
ceive from your style to which side you incline. Now 
you are the man in whom of all in Upsala we have 
placed the most confidence — you are he whom we have 
highly exalted — you are he whom we have most de- 
lighted to know. See that you prove yourself sensi- 
ble of this." 

We cannot wonder that the treason of bishops of 
his own appointment, and the selfish greed and the 
thinly veiled disloyalty of friends in whom he trusted, 
should have awakened this feeling of scorn and indig- 
nation in the heart of the king; but it is only a brave 
man that, in the critical circumstances in which he 
was placed, would have ventured to give them such 
free expression. It is evident that he felt that the time 
had come for the inevitable conflict with the Papal 
and priestly power. He no longer disguised his con- 
viction that the Church was not only an oppressive 
domination, fatal to the advancement and prosperity 
of the kingdom, the robber of the rights and posses- 
sions of citizens and of the State, in the name of reli- 
gion, but that it was essentially anti-Christian in its 
dogmas and its spirit. He saw that the time for peace- 
ful preparation for the Reformation had passed, and 



74 The Reformation in Sweden. 

that it must either be established or destroyed by- 
open conflict, by a decided victory or defeat. He did 
not hesitate to meet the crisis, not only with his us- 
ual magnificent intrepidity, but also with no little of 
passion and of polemic zeal. He put off his civic robes 
and threw down his diplomatic pen, and donned his 
armor and took in his mailed hand the sword that had 
won so many and such wondrous triumphs. The time 
was propitious. Christian was a fugitive. Frederic 
of Denmark was from policy friendly. Norby was out 
of the way. The Pope was in conflict with Charles V., 
and the Emperor's resources were too absorbed in that 
struggle, and in his large imperial schemes in Italy, the 
Netherlands and France, to allow him to intervene in 
the affairs of Sweden. His proceedings from this pe- 
riod plainly showed his purpose to grapple with and 
overthrow the Papal domination or to perish in the 
attempt. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SUCCESSFUL STRUGGLE OF GUSTAVUS WITH THE 
SPIRITUAL POWER, 1 526-27. 

THE resolution of the king to destroy the Papal 
power in Sweden soon found expression in meas- 
ures which brought on an open conflict. 
The Arrest Prompt steps were taken by the king to 
and Execu- insure his authority over the people before 
two Bisk- he entered upon the decisive measure of 
°P S - securing the arrest and trial and punishment 

of the two rebel bishops. The States were assembled 
early in May, 1526, at Westeras. The king presented 
to them the two great evils which afflicted the country 
— the treason of the bishops, and the intrigues of Norby. 
He offered to resign his crown if his government was 
unsatisfactory to the States and people. But he was 
eagerly assured by them of their attachment to his per- 
son, of their loyal support to his government, and their 
co-operation in the punishment of traitors. Having 
thus received a fresh sanction to his authority, Gustavus 
proceeded to the Dales and summoned the people to 
meet him at Tuna-Kyrka, and held a conference with 
them, surrounding them by a considerable body of well- 
armed troops. Convinced by arguments and subdued 
by his commanding presence, and experiencing prob- 
ably a renewal of their old affection and admiration, 
and perhaps overawed by the military display, which 



y6 The Reformation in Sweden. 

was too large for a mere escort, and yet not so over- 
whelming as to mortify them by the proof that they 
were to be forced into submission, they acknowledged 
that they had been misled, and promised not again to 
be seduced from their allegiance. 

Then he proceeded at once to secure the two rebel 
bishops. They had fled to Norway and had found a 
refuge with the Archbishop of Drontheim. The king 
demanded them from the Norwegian Council by virtue 
of an article of the treaty of Malmo, by which it was 
agreed that the rebels of one country should not find 
protection in the other. The Council consented to de- 
liver up the refugees, but demanded a safe conduct for 
them. Gustavus sent it in these terms: They should 
experience no evil in coming to Sweden, but there they 
should stand their trial before their proper judges, and 
undergo what justice demanded and decreed. The 
archbishop suggested that their proper judges were 
prelates of the Church. But Gustavus would not listen 
to this plea. He asserted justly that those who were 
traitors to the State, should be tried by the civil power; 
and not shelter their treason under a plea of religion. 
It was evident that the safety of his throne depended 
on the maintenance of this principle. He determined 
to assert it in this case in a way so startling as to prove 
to all that he was not to be deterred by any remaining 
reverence for the Roman priesthood from punishing the 
treason of ecclesiastics, with even more of rigor and 
more accompaniments of disgrace, than those of civil- 
ians. Sunanvader, who was ill, had been detained in 
prison at Stockholm. When the archbishop was near 
the city Sunanvader was carried out to meet him; and 
a mock triumphal entry of the two took place. The 
two bishops were seated, riding backwards, on half- 



The Reformation in Sweden. yy 

starved horses and in tattered Episcopal robes. On 
the head of one was a miter of bark; the other wore a 
crown of straw and a wooden half-broken sword. How- 
ever much or little of significant symbolism might have 
been intended by this travesty of power and office, it 
was plain enough that there was in it an evident ex- 
pression of defiance and contempt of the priesthood. 
A few years earlier such an exhibition from whatever 
cause would have created a revolt. But in this a great 
crowd followed with demonstrations of approval, and a 
group of masked men surrounded and followed them, 
shouting, Here comes the new king, the Lord Peter 
Sunanvader ! 

Sunanvader was sent to Upsala for trial. In addition 
to the judges in the case of the archbishop, there were 
added two bishops and the chief persons in the Chapter 
of Upsala. The lay judges condemned the accused, 
and the spiritual protested against their jurisdiction. 
Petitions for mercy, strongly urged, were wholly un- 
heeded by the king. The sentence was carried out at 
Upsala upon the Bishop of Westeras in February, 1527, 
and a few days after upon the archbishop at Stockholm. 
Character of Gustavus has been severely censured, even 
this proceed- by Protestant historians, for this proceeding. 
ins ' But it was evident that he could hold his 

own, only by striking terror into the Papal party, and 
by a distinct and sharp-cut issue, at this period, be- 
tween the Reformation and the Papacy. It was no 
more than justice towards the traitors, who used their 
spiritual power for the overthrow of the government 
as well as for the supremacy of the priesthood; and it 
was as evidently good policy on the part of the king, 
whose conscience was now enlisted in behalf of the 
Reformation, and who both as a Christian and a patriot 



?8 The Reformation in Sweden. 

was ready to stake his throne on the failure or success 
of his efforts to destroy the Papal and the priestly power. 

The character of the policy of Gustavus from the 
first — the skillful use of conciliation where it was ex- 
pedient, and of force and severity where it was neces- 
sary, is well described by Geijer in commenting on 
these proceedings. I quote part of the passage as af- 
fording a true key to the proceeding of the king dur- 
ing all his reign, in the midst of difficulties, which only 
a master mind could have overcome. He was a com- 
bination of Bismarck without his brutality, and of a 
Napoleon III. without his inertness. 

" Men now began to be aware with whom they had 
to do; but they scarcely yet comprehended the full 
measure of that intrepidity which in Gustavus was us- 
ually evolved stroke by stroke as the resistance offered, 
and the circumstances of the case demanded, from a be- 
ginning that was tranquil and even apparently com- 
pliant. For such always was his commencement, un- 
less urgent necessity prescribed a different line, and he 
ever went greater lengths than even his opponents 
expected. Signs like these announce to us a soul 
which teemed with a future yet unrevealed. Those 
who wish to study his character in this phase, from its 
earliest disclosure, may be referred to his correspond- 
ence with Bishop Brask, as one of the main sources of 
the history of the first year of his reign. This prelate 
was beyond camparison the most influential as well as 
the most sagacious and well-informed of his day in 
Sweden, and in his way an upright friend of his coun- 
try. He treated the young king from the beginning 
with a kind of fatherly superiority, styling him ' dear 
Gustavus,' and accepting in return the title of 'gra- 
cious Lord.' Shortlv after the election he obtained 3 



The Reformation in Sweden. 79 

confirmation of all the privileges of his Church and bish- 
opric. But he was soon forced to feel the signiiicance 
of the king's saying to the last Catholic archbishop, 
Johannes Magnus: ' Thy grace and our grace have not 
room beneath one roof.' With the aggressions of Gus- 
tavus on the clergy began the prelate's opposition; and 
with every impediment thrown in his way the king 
went one step further, as if he were more bent on re- 
ducing his most powerful adversary to extremities, so 
that the latter determined at length after the example 
of Johannes Magnus to quit the kingdom. But he was 
first to see the hierarchy of Sweden completely over- 
thrown." 

Deposition A short time before these events Johannes 
and Banish. Magnus had incurred the king's displeasure, 
hann°sMa°g- both by his hostility to .the Reformed doc- 
nus - trines, and his luxurious and extravagant 

mode of life. He maintained a state and pomp which 
surpassed that of the king's court. He made his Episco- 
pal visitations with a cortege of two hundred persons; 
and, like Cardinal Wolsey, he had among the pages 
of his household the sons of some of the chief nobles 
of the land. The king had in vain remonstrated with 
him on his unseemly ostentation and luxury. On the 
fair day of S. Eric he took the archbishop with him to 
the old Upsala, and there on the summit of one of the 
mounds, seated on horseback, with the people around 
him, much to the disgust of the archbishop, he en- 
deavored to convince them that there were too many 
monks in the country, and that they were no better 
than a race of vermin devouring the face of the earth; 
and that it was an unreasonable thing to pray in Latin, 
which they did not understand. The sturdy but su- 
perstitious peasantry called out that they would not 



8o The Reformation in Sweden. 

allow their monks to be driven out, but would them- 
selves feed and sustain them. This meeting took place 
in May, 1526, and on their return to Upsala the king- 
accepted an invitation of the archbishop to a feast. 
On that occasion the archbishop occupied a raised 
seat on a level of that of the king, contrary to the us- 
ual custom on such occasions, and said while pledging 
him " Our Grace drinks to your Grace." The king an- 
swered, " For our Grace and your Grace there is not 
room in the same house." He rose from the table 
much offended, and departed amid the smiles of the 
courtiers, and the consternation of the ecclesiastics. 
His dissatisfaction with the archbishop was much in- 
creased when at a conference with the Canons of Up- 
sala he inquired of them on what they grounded their 
right to their large possessions; and found that the 
archbishop was determined to hold fast to the extent 
of his ability to all the possessions and the old immun- 
ities of the Church. Peter Galle answered him that 
these possessions were granted by nobles and others, 
and confirmed by kings and princes. " But," asked 
Gustavus, "what if they have been obtained by fraud 
— by preaching of purgatory or such-like cozenage of 
priests and friars ? " The archbishop and the other 
members of the Chapter, with the exception of George 
Tureson, the dean, made no reply. He boldly declared 
that the gifts made by kings and emperors cannot be 
filched away without God's curse and eternal damnation. 
Upon suspicion of treasonable practices the arch- 
bishop was imprisoned for a time in a monastery; but, 
without being tried, he was allowed to proceed to 
Poland on the pretense of a mission to negotiate a 
marriage between the king and the daughter of Sig- 
ismund. But he furnished the archbishoD with no 



The Reformation in Sweden. 8i 

money; and it was evident that it was a device of the 
king to get him out of the kingdom. As soon as he 
was able to obtain means from his clergy, the arch- 
bishop proceeded at once to Dantzic, and thence to 
Rome, where he died in great poverty in the hospital 
of San Spirito, in 1537, and was buried in the Vatican. 
Anti- Papal It was in the midst of increasing opposition 
and Arbi- an d obstacles that the king himself took or 
ures 0/ the sanctioned in others more and more decided 
King. measures against the devotions and practices 

and property of the Church. Olaus Petri took a wife 
in Stockholm in 1525. His example was soon fol- 
lowed by many other priests. Gustavus would not 
allow them 10 be deposed or to lose their position 
and emoluments. On the contrary, he wrote Bishop 
Brask that Olaus Petri would vindicate that proceed- 
ing by the Word of God. It was in this year also 
that the New Testament, translated at his request by 
the Chancellor, Lars Anderson, was published. In 
order to divert the interest and the ambition of the 
nobility away from the Church and towards the State, 
Gustavus conferred on them titles, and put them in 
possession of Church lands, which had been alienated 
from the estates of their ancestors, as he avowed, 
through the preaching of purgatory and other priestly 
cozenage. 

We have seen that up to this period, 1525, Gus- 
tavus had insisted that the clergy should bear their 
proportionate part of the burdens of the State. But 
in that year, on account of the revolt of the Dalesmen 
and the attempts of Christian to recover the throne, 
and the diminution of the revenues, he went still fur- 
ther in his demand upon the revenues of the Church. 
At the meeting of the States in January, 1525, it was 



82 The Reformation in Sweden. 

agreed that the tithes, with the exception of so much 
as should be necessary for wax-lights and the service 
of the altar, should be appropriated to the pay of the 
troops, and that the cavalry should be quartered upon 
the monasteries. It was on this occasion that Bishop 
Brask admonished the king not to appropriate tithes 
to secular uses nor to encroach upon the privileges of 
the convents. He declared " that as they were not 
endowed from crown lands but by private property, 
the king had not the smallest right to meddle with 
them, neither had any previous monarch ventured to 
do so." Gustavus answered in effect that he was com- 
pelled to this course by the necessity which knew no 
law, and whether it were law or no, his course was 
right in itself, and absolutely necessary in the emer- 
gency in which he was placed. After this, in 1526-27, 
he took the ground distinctly that all Church prop- 
erty was the State's, and to be employed by it for the 
best civil and religious welfare of the people. It was 
inevitable that these sweeping claims, and the high- 
handed enforcement of them which followed, would 
lead to a decisive struggle of the old and new. To 
enter fully into all the details of this struggle, in which 
the interests of the Reformation were indeed involved, 
but which were for the most part civil and military, 
would be to lose sight for a time almost entirely of 
the religious questions. This constitutes the special 
difficulty of presenting the Reformation history — the 
religious history of Sweden. It is to be discerned 
through — lying under as it were — its civil history. In 
some other countries the reverse of this is true, as in 
Bohemia, and in England during the reigns of Henry 
VIIL, of Edward VI., and Elizabeth. There the civil 
history is best seen under the religious history by 



The Reformation in Sweden. 83 

which it was shaped. But in Sweden, Gustavus was 
involved in his civil administration in difficulties aris- 
ing from the exorbitant power of the clergy and the 
magnates and the turbulence of the people — difficul- 
ties which would have existed if no religious Reforma- 
tion had been undertaken, but which were aggravated 
by this underlying, and, in the beginning, partially 
hidden purpose to dethrone the Papal power and in- 
troduce Lutheran Protestantism in its place. 
Continued After the decisive action of the States in 
Appropria- Stockholm, in January, 1525, by which it 
cVurck was decreed that tithes should be appro- 
Property. priated to the payment of the troops, and 
the troops quartered upon the monasteries, the king 
more openly than before laid his hand upon the property 
of the Church. At a meeting of the States at Wad- 
stena in the following year, on the same plea of State 
necessity, it was enacted that the beneficed clergy 
should bear the same burden in furnishing men at arms 
as the laymen of the same incomes. Gustavus also at 
this meeting confirmed the old privileges of the nobles 
and permitted them to redeem that portion of their 
patrimony which had passed into the hands of the 
Church since Charles Canutson's reign. It was a meas- 
ure well calculated to enlist the lords on the side of 
the Reformation. Gustavus immediately availed him- 
self of this provision to lay claim to the convent of 
Gripsholm. " You see," said Bishop Brask to his brother 
bishops on this occasion, "the fruit of your remissness. 
Our ruin is at hand, and you yourself have helped it 
on. The king, without a single remonstrance from you, 
has taken one step after another in overthrowing our 
religion. He has Lutheran priests in his palace preach- 
ing daily that our fall is near. He has attacked our 



84 The Reformation in Sweden. 

monasteries and you have consented to his deeds. 
He has allowed priests to marry; he has in your very 
presence subjected our faith to examination. Now he 
snatches away our revenues, and you look on dismayed." 
"And," says one of the historians of Gustavus, "well 
might they do so! For against them was State neces- 
sity and a determined will and an almost absolute power; 
and they themselves were not so strong in truth and 
righteousness as not to blench before the formidable 
array." 

The monks of Gripsholm hastened to lay the convent 
at the feet of Gustavus, not only without remonstrance 
but with abject expressions of satisfaction at the sur- 
render. They close the document of transfer with these 
words: " If through misunderstanding of the affair any 
evil report should rise against his Grace in consequence 
of this proceeding, we pledge our honor and Christian 
faith that we will repel it and defend his Grace as we 
honestly may, well knowing that his Grace* has good 
right to recover the inheritance which was taken by 
force from his father." 
T . .. r Thus far the king" had secured the sanction 

Injustice of ° 

the King's of the States for his proceedings. But he 
%ains d t in t g he se emed now to feel that he had become 
Church of strong enough, through their support and 
sanction hitherto, to act without it, and of 
his own will to lay his hands on Church property, and 
arbitrarily to intervene in the management of Church 
affairs. He allowed dissatisfied monks on application 
to him to leave their monasteries. He wrote to the 
Bishop of Abo that the Chapter should have con- 
sulted him before they chose a dean, and prescribed 
to them as a sort of penance for their presumption that 
they should send 200 marks a year for the maintenance 



The Reformation in Sweden. 85 

of a good man — i. e.> one of his guard in the palace. 
And what was more extraordinary, he ordered the 
dean and chapter of the same See to change the late 
dean's will. His missive on this occasion is certainly 
a remarkable document, and is appended in order to 
show the thoroughly arbitrary methods upon which 
he had entered, and which led, not only to murmurs 
and discontent, but ultimately to a new rebellion. 

"We, Gustavus, hereby testify that it has been 
made known to us how the good man, Jacob, Dean 
of Abo, has left a large sum of money which he be- 
queathed in his will according to his pleasure; but it 
is evident to any one who will duly consider the mat- 
ter, that the said money could have been much better 
disposed of; that is to say, that the greatest part of it 
might have been applied to the public benefit, con- 
sidering the burdens now lying on the country, through 
the heavy debt occasioned by the war, which has been 
now a long time waged against King Christian. We 
therefore enjoin the Bishop and Chapter of Abo to 
modify the said will according to our ideas, which we 
have already partly explained to his executors, so that 
while his heirs, relations and the poor get the share 
that is given them, the rest may be applied, as far as 
it will go, to the payment of the debt; when that 
is done we acquit his executors of all other claim 
from those interested in said will, whosoever they 
may be." 

It was impossible that such arbitrary proceed- 
ings should not excite murmurs and dissatisfaction. 
Coupled as they were with the famine that followed, 
and the increased heavy taxation, they led to a new 
rebellion in Dalecarlia. 



86 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Rebellion in The prevailing disaffection, which ripened 
Dahcariia. { n t revolt in Dalecarlia, gathered about a 
young impostor who professed to be the son of Sten 
Sture. The youth whom he personated had been sent 
to Dantzic in 1520, and had returned to Calmar at the 
same time that Gustavus procured the liberation of 
Christina. He was at the time that this pretender 
appeared, 1527, at the court of Gustavus, who was 
falsely accused of having taken his life. It was this 
false rumor, propagated by the partisans of Christian 
and Norby, which gave rise to this attempt. The pre- 
tender declared that Gustavus had ordered that he 
should be killed, but that he escaped from the court 
of the heretic tyrant who had sought his life. A sol- 
dier of the late Regent, Peter Grym, assisted him in 
his deception and taught him how to play his part. 
He was an illegitimate child of an unknown father, 
and had acquired in the service of a nobleman the arts 
and manners which gave plausibility among the simple 
Dalesmen to his claim. He is described as handsome, 
eloquent, and full of assurance and assumption. When- 
ever he spoke of his pretended father it was with so 
much seeming feeling that the Dalesmen could not 
refrain from weeping with him. He thanked them for 
their love to his father, and bade them to pray for his 
soul. He proceeded to Norway, where he was taken 
up by the archbishop, and through his influence be- 
trothed to a lady of large fortune and high family. 
Returning to the Dales with the aid he derived from 
Norway, he rallied some supporters, although opinion 
with regard to him was much divided, and he deter- 
mined to resist the forces of the king. Christina Gyl- 
lenstierna, at the king's request, wrote to the Dales- 
men disowning her pretended son. 



The Reformation in Sweden. 87 

Complaints After some skirmishing with the king's troops, 
of the Dales- the Dalesmen came to a parley with the com- 
missioners whom the king had sent to confer 
with them in reference to their alleged grievances. 
The complaints transmitted by the commission were 
answered by Gustavus with the patience which he could 
always display upon occasion, and which the critical 
circumstances in which he was now placed made expe- 
dient. They complained that there was but little coin 
in circulation, of heavy taxes, of dearness of provisions, 
and of the profanation of monasteries. One of the most 
curious of their grievances, and one which shows the 
simplicity of the times, and the freedom with which 
they addressed their kings, was their objection to the 
new-fashioned slashed doublets that were worn at court. 
They objected to the Lutheranism which prevailed at 
Stockholm, and the psalms and hymns that were sung 
in public worship. These and similar grievances, in 
which the gravest and most trivial matters were ab- 
surdly mixed, were answered fully and in their order by 
the king. New coin should soon be struck. The heavy 
taxes were unavoidable after the war, but would be di- 
minished as soon as peace was assured and Christian 
disabled from doing further mischief. The dearness of 
provisions was due to famine, which was God's visitation 
and should be borne with pious patience. He quite 
agreed with them about slashed doublets — he did not 
like them — but what could he do with giddy young 
courtiers who would adopt every foreign folly that was 
imported ? And what concern was it of theirs how he 
and the courtiers dressed ? As to Lutheranism and the 
Swedish hymns, he answered — not very ingenuously — ■ 
that he knew little about Lutheranism; but that he was 
determined to put a stop to priestly impositions and 



88 The Reformation in Sweden. 

secure the pure preaching of the Word of God; and that 
it was certainly more-sensible to sing hymns in Swedish 
which they understood than in Latin of which they 
were wholly ignorant. He expressed surprise that they 
should meddle with questions such as these, which were 
quite beyond their capacity, and not leave them to be 
settled by the State Council and learned clerks and 
prelates. 

The result of these conferences and communications 
of the king was that the Dalesmen agreed to lay down 
their arms and abandon the pretender; and on the part 
of Gustavus there was an assurance of complete oblivion 
of all that had been done or attempted in his favor. It 
was furthermore decided that a meeting of the States 
should take place at Westeras in which all the questions 
at issue between the king, the Dalesmen, and the clergy, 
should be discussed and settled. 

Meeting of This meeting of the States in Westeras, as 
the states in it was most important in view of the crisis 
at which it was summoned and most mem- 
orable for its results, was also remarkable for the un- 
usual numbers for that age by which it was attended. 
There were present, 4 Bishops, 4 Deans, 15 State Coun- 
cillors, 120 Nobles, 32 Burghers (exclusive of the Town 
Council of Stockholm, who were present and had a con- 
siderable influence upon their proceedings), 14 Miners, 
representative of that important interest, and 105 peas- 
ants from all parts of the kingdom, except the Dales, 
who felt that the question between them and the king 
was one of the most important which was to be settled. 
The nobles at the king's request came armed. He 
reckoned on their support in striking the decisive blow 
against the bishops and the clergy, upon which he was 
resolved. 



The Reformation in Sweden. 89 

Gustavus opened the session on the Sunday before 
the midsummer's day by a magnificent banquet in which 
he conspicuously displayed his purpose to bring down 
the hierarchy. The indignities offered to Knut and 
Sunanvader might seem to have been prompted solely 
by their repeated treasons; the insults heaped upon 
Johannes Magnus to have been the due reward of his 
vanity and folly; but the king now determined to take 
a step which could not be mistaken. The whole hier- 
archy was now to be humbled. They had always been 
assigned the highest places in all public proceedings, 
and especially in feasts — the bishops taking position 
above even the regents of the kingdom. But on this 
occasion the place assigned them was below the State 
Council and the higher nobles. 

This was no light matter in itself, and it was alarm- 
ingly significant as an indication of the intended policy 
of the king towards the prelates and the Church. The 
bishops met, with closed doors, in the church of S. 
Egedius, to consider the situation. Their leader, Bish- 
op Brask, declared that the purpose of the king was 
patent. He no doubt intended to take away their rev- 
enues and castles and prelatical prerogatives, and de- 
grade them to the level of mere parish priests. But to 
this, if they were wise, they never would consent. They 
could not indeed resist force; but they could wield a 
force greater far than that of kings' — even that of in- 
terdict and excommunication. Mightier monarchs than 
Gustavus had been prostrated by the thunders of the 
Church. Let them remain true to the Pope and their 
order and they might retain or recover their position; 
but if they yielded they would be held no better than 
serfs or cowards. 

At Brask's suggestion the assembled dignitaries 



90 The Reformation in Sweden. 

signed a paper, in which they pledged themselves to 
protect the Church's rights, to be true to the Pope, 
never to adopt the Lutheran heresy, and to await with 
patience the change of government. They hid this 
document under the floor of the church, where fifteen 
years after it was discovered. 

The King's The king, through his chancellor, thanked 
Address. tne Diet for having assembled at his call, 
in the present emergency, in such large numbers. He 
reminded them that at Wadstena he had offered to re- 
sign the regency. In consequence of the state of the 
kingdom at that time he had been obliged to seek aid 
in Lubeck and other towns, and hence the large in- 
debtedness and heavy taxes of the kingdom. After 
the surrender of Stockholm the nobles had chosen him 
king, and his election had been confirmed by all- the 
orders of the State. He had then reluctantly accepted 
the office, and had since often repented having done 
so. " For," and here he dropped his apologetic and 
explanatory style, "who could rule with any comfort 
such a people ? Who especially would desire to rule 
the Dalesmen, who were ever on the look-out for some- 
thing to find fault with, ever ready to break into open 
revolt, if the king did not submit to their capricious 
and unreasonable demands ? They were ever boasting 
that they had placed him upon the throne. But after 
the victory at Westeras, when the liberation was by 
no means fully assured, most of them went home again." 
Passing from this outburst of rebuke, the chancellor pro- 
ceeded to vindicate the proceedings of Gustavus, in 
reference to the monasteries, the taxing of the clergy, 
the limitation of the powers of the bishops, and the 
introduction of the pure preaching of the Gospel. 
The king, he said, was more than ready to resign 



The Reformation in Sweden. 91 

the throne if the people were dissatisfied and wished 
him to do so; but as long as he occupied it he was 
fixed in his purpose of pursuing the policy which un- 
der a deep sense of duty to his country he had hitherto 
adopted. 

It was a bold but probably a politic proceeding on 
the part of the king. It was one of those decisive oc- 
casions on which a great man, driven at bay, and los- 
ing his temper and self-control, and regardless of con- 
sequences, assumes a defiant attitude which ultimately 
stands him in better stead than his usual more restrained 
and politic methods of proceeding. It was evident that 
he now stood at the turning point of his career, where 
he was either to be unseated or to be more firmly fixed 
in his position upon the throne. It was also clear that 
he had become so harassed that he had lost his usual 
patience and forbearance, and was really indifferent to 
the result. He did not desire to be king unless he 
could have the ample power necessary to discharge the 
office at an era so disturbed and among a people so in- 
dependent in spirit, so prone to complain and to adopt 
a tone of dictation to their rulers. If he had attempted 
to wheedle or conciliate them we can scarcely doubt 
that he would have failed. By taking a high tone of 
indignation, which, unlike some of the first Napoleon's 
outbursts of feigned passion for evil ends, was genuine, 
and by the expression of more than willingness to re- 
sign his office, which was evidently real, the admira- 
tion of some of his opponents might be awakened, and 
others become alarmed at the view of the anarchy 
which would probably result from his abdication. 
Whether or no this result was in his thought, it was 
immediately brought about by the strong reaction 
which ensued. 



92 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Opposition The ruling spirit of the opposition, Bishop 
to the King. Brask, who could no longer doubt that the. 
existence of the Romish Church in Sweden and the 
prerogatives of his own order depended on the result 
of this Diet — had arranged the method of proceeding, 
which he hoped would lead to the persistent refusal 
of Gustavus to wear a crown so lined with irritating 
cares, and the acceptance of his resignation by the 
States. He had induced Thure Johnson, the senior 
member of the king's council, and therefore next to 
the king in position in the kingdom, to approve his 
views and second his efforts. Accordingly, when the 
address had been read and the king demanded an 
answer of the nobles and bishops, Thure Johnson 
requested that Bishop Brask might give his opinion. 
Gustavus could not but have perceived that this pro- 
ceeding had been pre-arranged, and this knowledge 
was by no means calculated to calm his excitement. 
The bishop replied to the appeal that he was well 
aware of the allegiance which he owed to the king; 
but he and all his order were equally bound to obey 
the Pope in things spiritual, and that without his 
concurrence he could not consent to any change of 
doctrine, nor to any diminution of the Church's rights 
and possessions. If, indeed, unscrupulous priests had 
sought to enrich themselves by working upon the su- 
perstitions of the laity — a course which the heads of 
the Church themselves condemned — let such cases 
be proved and punished. 

The King's The king asked the nobles and the State 
indignant Councillors if this reply seemed to them suf- 
re^ignaTion ficient. Thure Johnson said that he could 
ofthethrone. not k ut think that the Bishop's answer was 
in the main right, though not a complete reply to all 



The Reformation in Sweden. 93 

that the king had brought forward. Gustavus was 
too indignant to measure his words, or even to re- 
strain himself within the bounds of his royal dignity. 
" Then," said he, "we have no will longer to be your 
king. From you we had expected another answer; 
but now we cannot wonder that the common people 
should give us all manner of disobedience and mislik- 
ing, when they have such ringleaders. Get they not 
rain, the fault is ours; if sunshine fail them, it is the 
same cry; if bad years, hunger, and pest come, so must 
we bear the blame. All ye will be our masters. 
Monks and priests and creatures of the Pope ye set 
over our heads; and for all our toil for your welfare 
we have no other reward to expect than that ye 
would gladly see the axe at our neck; and there are 
none of you but gladly grasp its handle. Who would 
be your king on such terms ? Not the worst fiend in 
hell, much less a man ! Therefore look ye to it that 
ye release me fairly of the government, and restore 
to me that which I have disbursed of my own stock 
for the general weal. Then will I depart and never 
see again my ungrateful fatherland." The king, at these 
words, burst into tears, and hastily quitted the hall. 

It is not often that such momentous results have hung 
upon one short speech. The Reformation in Sweden, 
the heroic services of Gustavus Adolphus in behalf of 
periled Protestantism in Europe, the prevention, it is 
not too much to say, of the crushing out of Protestant- 
ism in Germany — all these great issues hung suspended 
on the result of that short, impassioned speech. 
TheComter- When Gustavus disappeared a deep silence 
nation of the fell upon the assembly. At length the chan- 
cellor came forward, and invited them in the 
great difficulty in which they were involved to offer 



94 The Reformation in Sweden. 

up their united prayers to God for guidance. "We 
have only the alternative to choose, either to follow 
the king, as he has proposed, and entreat him to carry 
on the government, or to pay him what he has ex- 
pended for the State, and to choose another king." 
They were, however, too much confounded by the 
scene which they had witnessed to determine any- 
thing that day. Thure Johnson put on an appearance 
of resolution and bluster, and marched to his lodgings 
preceded by a drum, as if to announce a victory, and 
to express his joy at the result. He exclaimed, as he 
marched on, that "he defied any man to make him a 
Lutheran or a heathen." But when in the meeting on 
the next day the lords and clergy did not come to 
any decision, the peasants grew impatient, and said 
if all things were well considered Gustavus had done 
them no injury, and that unless the nobles soon set- 
tled something, they would take the matter into their 
own hands. The merchants and shop-keepers sup- 
ported the peasants, and the burghers of Stockholm 
declared that they would hold that city for the king. 
Magnus Sommer, Bishop of Strengness, declared that 
the bishops did not wish to be so protected as to 
leave the kingdom a prey to its worst enemies. The 
declaration was received with great applause. Many 
declared that they would have no other king but Gus- 
tavus. They desired to hear a discussion upon the 
differences of the Catholic and the Protestant doc- 
trines. Accordingly, Olaus Petri and Peter Galle 
argued the question until late in the day. The 
peasants compelled Galle, who commenced the dis- 
cussion in Latin, to speak in Swedish. The im- 
pression left by this discussion was favorable to the 
Reformation. 



The Reformation in Sweden. 95 

The Ring While these events were in progress in the 
induced to Diet, Gustavus held his court at the castle 
Ms Resigna- surrounded by his military staff, and passed 
Hon. the time with them in various diversions. 

His whole bearing was that of a man who had been 
relieved of a heavy burden. But on the third day the 
burghers and the peasants said to the nobles that if 
they chose to be the ruin of the king and kingdom, they 
with the aid of the king would ruin them; and that they 
had already sent a message to the king to that effect. 
Thereupon several of the nobles entreated Thure Johnson 
to cease his opposition to the king. He sullenly agreed 
to do so, on condition that the king would agree not 
to lead the people into any heresy. The Diet accepted 
his consent, and took no notice of the condition which 
he attached to it. 

Thereupon Lars Anderson and Olaus Petri were sent 
to Gustavus to entreat him still to hold the throne. 
They were met with a short and sharp refusal. On their 
return they prayed that if any further communications 
were to be made to the king, it might be by other mes- 
sengers. Knut Anderson and the Bishop of Strengness 
undertook the task; but they also came back unsuc- 
cessful. The anxiety now became intense. The future 
before the Diet now seemed to be a civil war, and the 
re-appearance and perhaps the reinstatement of King 
Christian. The prospect was too dreadful to be con- 
templated with composure. All opposition vanished, 
and the Diet became an importunate supplicant. The 
last committee that was sent to the king fell on their 
knees and wept. The king at length relented, and con- 
sented to meet the States on the following day. His 
long resistance to these appeals can as well be recon- 
ciled — perhaps better — with the theory that he was 



96 The Reformation in Sweden. 

sincere in his purpose to abdicate the throne, as to that 
which would regard the whole proceeding as a skillful 
scheme to bring the Diet to his feet, and to secure their 
pledges of unconditional surrender and obedience. For 
if he were sincere and desirous to withdraw from a con- 
viction that he could not succeed in his government, 
unless the lords and people became more loyal to him, 
and more ready to aid him in putting down the priestly 
party, he certainly would refuse to revoke that decision, 
and persist in his refusal until he should be convinced 
that such a change had been wrought in the feelings 
of his opponents as would seem to furnish a guaranty 
that hereafter he might rely upon their hearty co- 
operation and support. 

On his appearance in the Diet, attended by his State 
Council and a splendid life-guard, he was received with 
hearty demonstrations of applause. Now the three es- 
tates, the nobles, burghers, and peasants, with one voice 
sanctioned his demands. 

Gustavus had triumphed. His foes were, for the time 
at least, silenced, if not reconciled. Thus far the Ref- 
ormation has been seen struggling for life and recogni- 
tion. Hereafter we shall see it established, indeed, but 
violently opposed, and still compelled to unceasing 
warfare with foes who postponed its complete ascend- 
ency, and hindered its full development. During all the 
remainder of the reign of Gustavus, his history at the 
same time is or involves the history of the Reformation. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE ESTABLISHMENT AND CONTINUED STRUGGLES 
OF THE REFORMATION. 

FROM the Diet of Westeras may be dated the es- 
tablishment of the Reformation in Sweden. But 
its progress during the reign of Gustavus was slow, and 
in that of Eric it was arrested and temporarily paralyzed. 
Decrees of ^ e demands or propositions of the king, 
the Diet of according to the custom of the Swedish 
esteras. Diets, were not voted upon by a body as 
a whole, but were answered by each class for itself. 
Accordingly there was not the same cordial acquies- 
cence in all the answers that were rendered ; and the king 
could judge by the tone of the reply how far he could 
rely upon the loyalty and support of the class by which 
it was given. The bishops gave a forced submission 
to the decrees, but after this period they were no longer 
summoned to the Diet. The decree of the Diet con- 
tained, I. A mutual engagement to resist all attempts 
at rebellion. 2. A grant of power to the king to take 
in his own hands the castles and strongholds of the 
Bishops; to fix their revenues and those of the canons 
and prebends; to levy fines and to regulate monasteries. 
3. Authority was given to the nobles to resume the 
lands which had been conveyed to churches and 
monasteries since the inquest of Charles Canutson, if 



98 The Reformation in Sweden. 

they could substantiate their claims before a court, and 
by a verdict of a jury. 4. Liberty was assured to the 
preachers "to proclaim the pure Word of God," " but 
not," the barons added, "uncertain miracles, human 
inventions and fables." 

We can see in the answer of the burghers and peasants 
concerning the faith their lingering misgiving and in- 
disposition to give to it an emphatic assent. They 
declare that inquiry should be made into it, but that 
the matter passed their understanding. The bishops 
declared "that they were content, however rich or 
poor his grace would have them to be." In the supple- 
ment of the statute called " The Ordinance of Westeras " 
the bishops are authorized to fill up the vacant bene- 
fices, but if they should appoint murderers, drunkards, 
or such as should be unable to preach God's Word, that 
they might be displaced and others of the king's ap- 
pointment substituted. It was provided that fines for 
fornication should be paid to the king and not to the 
bishops. No fines shall be inflicted for working on 
saints' days. The bishops were to render to the king 
an account of the revenues, that he might settle what 
portion they would be permitted to retain. The clergy 
should be amenable, in secular affairs, to the civil juris- 
diction. The property of the deceased clergy should 
fall to their lawful heirs, and not to the bishops. Men- 
dicant friars should be permitted to leave their convents 
to beg only for five weeks in the summer, and five in 
the winter. The sick should not be forced by the priests 
to make a will. The clergy should not withhold the 
Sacrament at Easter, or any other time, for the debts 
due to themselves. And, finally, the Gospel should be 
taught to the children in all the schools. 

It is clear that if Gustavus had not just won a victory 



The Reformation in Sweden. 99 

over his foes, and been tacitly admitted, even by them, 
as necessary to preserve the State from anarchy and 
intestine war, he could not have acquired such mastery 
over the Diet as that which induced them or forced them 
to pass this sweeping and radical decree. The partic- 
ulars enumerated in the decree exhibit at once the 
degraded condition of the clergy, the enormous power 
and possessions of the bishops, and their rapacious 
robbery of the rights and possessions of the people. 
They lived in fortified castles as feudal lords. They 
rode forth from them on episcopal progresses and vis- 
itations, attended by hundreds of military body-guards. 
Under the control of the Bishop of Linkoping there 
were more than six hundred benefices and estates ; under 
the Bishop of Abo more than four hundred, and under 
the Archbishop almost as many as both of them com- 
bined. Never was a poor and small kingdom so op- 
pressed and impoverished by a grasping and lordly 
hierarchy. That, while the great body of the people 
had not yet accepted the reformed faith, nor emancipated 
their minds from absolute and abject submission to the 
clergy, Gustavus should have been able to pass and 
enforce these decrees, without exciting a revolution, 
demonstrates the imperial ascendency of his character, 
by the blended skill and courage with which he over- 
came the manifold difficulties of his position. 

When all these provisions had been con- 

The King's ~ . . . . , . , , , 

Treatment firmed, the king immediately turned to the 
of the Bish- bishops and demanded first from the Bishop 
of Strengness the Castle of Tilnelso, which 
the latter declared himself ready to surrender. The 
same answer was returned by the Bishop of Skara to 
the demand of the Castle of Lecko. But when the 
king came to Bishop Brask and demanded his castle, 



ioo The Reformation in Sweden. 

"silence and sighs," says Geijer, "were the only reply." 
Thure Johnson begged for his old friend that the castle, 
might be spared him during his lifetime, but the king 
answered shortly, " No." Eight lords of the council 
were obliged on the spot to become sureties for the 
bishop's obedience. Forty men of his body-guard were 
taken from him, and enrolled in the king's army. At the 
same time the king sent commissioners to the principal 
churches and monasteries of Sweden to take account 
of their endowments, revenues and possessions. Bishop 
Brask succeeded, by a seeming submission, in freeing 
himself from the securities which he was obliged to 
give; and on the pretense of going on a sort of mission- 
ary expedition to the island of Gothland, he escaped 
to Poland, and made his way to Rome, where he died. 
He was the most eminent man, next to Gustavus, of 
that generation in Sweden; and it is by no means 
certain that the king did not know and rejoice in his 
intended expatriation. Whether the indignation which 
he expressed at the bishop's escape was feigned or 
real, it gave him an opportunity to say to him some 
things which were all the more cutting because they 
were true. He wrote to him "that formerly good 
men were reluctant to take the Episcopal office, but 
when once they had entered on it they would willingly 
die for it, and would not be separated from their sheep 
until driven from them. It is not so with you, but you 
have done quite the contrary. You pressed into the 
office, and without necessity or compulsion have fled from 
it. As long as the case was such that you could milk, 
shear and slay the flock, you were right at hand; but 
when the Word of God came and said that you should 
feed the flock of Christ, and not shear and slay them, 
then you fled." (Anjou: Reform in Sweden, p. 242.) 



The Reformation in Sweden. ioi 

y „ jr ., There was an article in the Ordinance of 

Fall of the 

Monastic Westeras which provided for the mainte- 
System. nance of the existing members of the relig- 

ious houses " that they might praise and serve God." 
In the mood of mind of Gustavus towards all the pa- 
pal clergy, and especially towards the monks, it was 
scarcely to be expected that this provision should be 
very strictly observed. The States assembled at Up- 
sala in 1528 complained of the king that, instead of 
observing that article, he had induced monks and nuns 
to leave their convents and to marry, and had expelled 
others whose conduct was reprehensible, instead of 
leaving them to the chastisement of their ecclesiastical 
superiors. No doubt pressure was brought to bear 
upon the monasteries by Gustavus to induce them to 
make an early surrender. When the whole matter in 
general terms was put in the hands of the king, it is not 
surprising, in view of the gross vices that prevailed 
in many of these institutions, that a man of so decided 
character as Gustavus should not allow himself to be 
arrested in his work by technicalities. He was em- 
powered to break them up; the sooner they were de- 
stroyed the better would the interests of morality and 
the welfare of the kingdom be subserved. This was 
the summary logic which satisfied his mind. No doubt 
the great good that was accomplished was accompanied 
with instances of individual suffering; but if reformations 
waited until no one could suffer from them, they would 
never come. 
rpr „.. It is to be observed that adherence to the 

1 lie episco- 
pal Succes- Papal Church was not, as in England, for- 
bidden and punished with fines and penal- 
ties. The bishops were not dispossessed of their sees. 
They were deprived, indeed, of a large part of their 



102 The Reformation in Sweden. 

emoluments, and exhorted to preach the pure Word 
of God, and were not permitted to punish heretics 
or to brand Protestantism as heresy; and they were 
stripped of many of their old prerogatives and privi- 
leges. There was no fanatical war, as in Scotland, 
against the Episcopal order as such, but only against 
its overgrown immunities and privileges and its enor- 
mous power. On the contrary, it was the effort of 
the Government to bring over the bishops to the ac- 
ceptance of the new faith by influence, and by com- 
pensations for the losses to which they were subjected. 
They were not at once to be deprived, but to hold 
their sees with diminished revenues and with increased 
amenability to the Government and the civil law; but 
in the mean time they were exhorted and encouraged 
to come into harmony with the new system, and to 
carry it out in their dioceses; and by this means it 
was hoped that some of them would from conviction 
adopt the system upon which the Reformation was 
founded. The policy was not unlike that by which 
James II. sought to bring back the bishops of the 
Church of England to the Church of Rome. 

The question of the Episcopal succession, to which 
so much importance has been attached in modern 
controversy, seems to have been scarcely mooted. 
The native historians do not allude to it as a vital 
question. The old sees, with vastly diminished rev- 
enues and privileges, were retained, and it seems to have 
been by a natural and unforced train of circumstances, 
rather than by a careful design and arrangement, that 
the Episcopal succession was preserved. It is evident 
from the subsequent proceedings of Gustavus, as we 
shall see, that he attached no special importance to 
the preservation of the unbroken Episcopal succession, 



The Reformation in Sweden. 103 

and that he would have been satisfied that the Epis- 
copal sees, as in Denmark, should have been filled by 
those who had only the ordination of presbyters; and 
who, while they bore the name of bishops, should in 
fact have no higher functions and jurisdiction than the 
superintendents of the Lutheran Church in Germany. 
It is only in a brief foot-note that the great national 
historian, Geijer, mentions the method in which the suc- 
cession was secured. In enumerating the four bishops 
that were in the Diet of Westeras, he names them thus: 
"There were present four Bishops, viz.: Brask, of Lin- 
koping; Magnus Harolson, of Skara; Magnus Sommer, 
of Strengness, and Peter Magnusen, of Westeras, — the 
latter being the only one besides Brask who had re- 
ceived his consecration, which was performed at Rome. 
At the king's special request, after Peter Sunanvader 
had been deposed, this Peter Magnusen. afterwards 
consecrated the bishops appointed by the king!' It was 
by the consecration of this single bishop that the suc- 
cession has been preserved in Sweden. 

If, therefore, one deems the unbroken Episcopal suc- 
cession necessary to the existence of a valid ministry, 
and to the intercommunion of the Episcopal Church 
with other churches, he will undoubtedly find that it 
has been preserved in the Church of Sweden. This has 
been conclusively proved by Dr. A. Nicholson, of Leam- 
ington, for several years English Consular Chaplain at 
Gothenburg. He recently returned to Sweden, and in- 
vestigated the question anew, and has produced proofs 
which are indisputable, that the succession has been 
preserved in the Church of Sweden. He concludes his 
documentary and complete evidence in these words: 
" Those who doubt the Apostolic succession of the 
bishops of the Church of Sweden ignore facts, and con- 



104 The Reformation in Sweden. 

found that Church with the Danish and Norwegian 
bodies. Hence arise their prejudices upon the subject, 
which are not more reasonable than the Roman sus- 
picion that Barlow and Parker were English laymen, 
and are not less fanciful, let me add, than the corre- 
sponding prejudice existing to-day in the mind of the 
Swedish High Churchman against the English, as one 
of those sects which owe their rise to the accidents of 
the Reformation, and their doctrines on the Holy Sac- 
raments and on Grace to Zwinglius and Calvin" (p. 
57). Thus Dr. Nicholson, while graciously admitting 
that the Swedish Church possesses the succession, and 
may therefore be acknowledged by the Anglican 
Church, receives in return from Swedish Churchmen 
the contemptuous statement that his own Church is a 
mere sect, the creature of an accident, and unsound in 
the faith on fundamental points! 
n .. The coronation of Gustavus took place at 

Coronation r 

of Gustavus Upsala, in February, 1529. It was observed 

Tcution EX of on ttiat occasion tnat contrary to the usual 
the Pre- custom no one bore the crown. It stood 
ten er. U p Q n the high altar, and Gustavus was be 

lieved to intimate thereby that he received it direct 
from heaven. As the Dalesmen continued refractory, 
and kept up correspondence with the pretended Sture 
in Norway, Gustavus marched an army of 14,000 men 
into the Dale district, and assembled a large number 
of the people at what was called the Assize of Tuna, and 
demanded that the chief supporters of the Daleyunker, 
as the Pretender was called, and especially those who 
constituted his council, should be surrendered to him. 
Resistance was impossible, and a large number of those 
most active in the support of the Yunker were, after a 
short trial, executed. The surrender of the false Sture 



The Reformation in Sweden. 105 

was demanded from the Archbishop of Drontheim, but 
evaded by sending him disguised to Rostock; but he 
was discovered in that city by the agents of the king, 
and tried and executed for treason. It was a severe 
proceeding, but probably not more so than the emer- 
gency demanded. 
T ,, The time was now ripe for an open acknowl- 

Lut herein- r *■ 

ism in the edgment and support of the Protestant faith 
Ascendant. ^ ^ kj n g # T/he most powerful supporters 
of the old system had abandoned the field. Most of the 
clergy avowed their acquiescence in the Protestant 
faith, and retained their parishes. The king declared 
himself a Lutheran. He appointed Olaus Petri Pastor 
of the Church at Stockholm, and his brother Laurentius 
Petri was subsequently, 1 53 1 , elected Archbishop of 
Upsala. The flight of Bishop Magnus and Bishop Brask 
greatly forwarded the progress of the Reformation. 
The consecration of three new Bishops by Bishop Mag- 
nus enabled him to be consecrated by them without 
taking the old form of the oath to protect the holy 
Church. At that coronation it was observed also, as 
a significant sign, that he did not, according to the old 
formula, receive the crown from the hand of the arch- 
bishop, but left it lying upon the altar, in token of his 
acceptance of it directly from God. And the sermon 
of Olaus Petri on that occasion was plainly and em- 
phatically Protestant. From that time the indefat- 
igable Olaus Petri, the polemic and the doctrinal leader 
of the Reformation, published within a year no less 
than nine treatises on the points at issue between Lu- 
theranism and Romanism. They covered the whole 
ground of the reformed theology. In this work he was 
powerfully aided by Lars Anderson, Archdeacon of Up- 
sala, whose shaping and systematizing mind brought 



106 The Reformation in Sweden. 

the new doctrines into a coherent order. They were 
the Luther and Melancthon of the Swedish Reforma- 
tion, and the coming Diet of Orebo was their Diet of 
Augsburg, and its Decrees their Confession. 

Moderation But althou g n tne kin g and his two principal 
of the Re- spiritual aids and advisers were thoroughly 
formers. Protestant Reformers, they were not icon- 
oclasts and radicals. While they established a doc- 
trinal reform and rejected the false and deadly dogmas 
of the Papacy, and swept away with a strong hand the 
practical corruptions and superstitions of the Church of 
Rome, they prudently allowed some points of ritual 
and ceremonial to remain, especially in the cathedral 
churches, in order that there might be less shocks to 
the minds of the weaker Reformers, and of the com- 
mon people. We find, for instance, that in the cathe- 
dral of Linkoping "six prelates and canons should re- 
main in the cathedral with the best prebends, and keep 
ten priests to bear crosses, the bishop two, the provost 
two, the archdeacons two, the four canons each one. 
In the cathedral of Wexio arrangements were made 
that there should be four canons with the best prebends 
and six cross-bearing priests and a school." (Anjou, 
p. 230.) These were specimens of what was still al- 
lowed to remain of the great staff of ecclesiastics and 
officials that had before thronged the cathedrals. More- 
over the principal festivals commemorative of the life 
and death of the Saviour were retained, and rich vest- 
ments were worn in the administration of the Lord's 
Supper, and the cross was still borne in processionals, 
and in some cases the crucifix was not removed from 
the Holy Table.* 

* It is a curious anomaly in a church which exalts so highly the doctrine 
of the Lord's Supper, and clothes its priests in gorgeous garments in its admin- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 107 

It is another notable evidence of the moderation of 
the Swedish Reformation that it not only did not pro- 
scribe and disfranchise the Roman Church, and subject its 
priests as such to penalties and punishments, but that it 
endeavored to bring over the bishops and priests to an 
acceptance of the new faith by a system of instruction 
and influence and rewards. The bishops were not at 
once to be dispossessed, but to hold their sees with di- 
minished revenues and privileges, and with increased 
amenability to the government and civil law; but in the 
meantime they were exhorted to come into harmony 
with the new system and to work it out in their dioceses; 
and by this means it was hoped that some of them 
would ultimately from conviction adopt the principles 
upon which the Reformation was founded. The policy 
was not unlike that by which James II. sought to bring 
back the prelates of the Church of England to the Church 
of Rome. The policy of Gustavus succeeded partially 
among the lower clergy, but failed almost wholly to 
bring over the dignitaries of the Church. 

Although the monasteries became the property of 
the crown, and the king immediately dissolved most 
of them, yet even here there was the same moderation 
displayed as in the matter of ritual and ceremonial. 
They were not all at once swept out of existence, in 

istration, that it leaves its chancels or sanctuaries unadorned, and in some cases 
in a condition of shameful untidiness and neglect. The author observed 
this to be the case in all the churches — not many it is true — which he saw in a 
recent tour through Sweden. He was amazed to find that the great Cathe- 
dral of Upsala, the Metropolitan Cathedral, and the greatest in the kingdom, 
contained a very small chancel, constructed of plain pine wood, much worn, 
with appointments which were absolutely shabby, and the whole wearing 
an aspect of great neglect. I venture to say that there is not in all the churches 
which I have seen in the city of Philadelphia, one chancel that is not superior 
in its appointments, and more reverently cared for, than that of the grand 
Cathedral of Upsala. 



108 The Reformation in Sweden. 

cruel disregard of helpless and blameless inmates. 
Some few cloisters remained after the death of Gusta-. 
vus. That of Sko was standing in 1556, and those of 
Wadstena and Nadendal in 1595. Many of them were 
converted into hospitals and some into schools for the 
education of youths. 

The Synod The Synod of Orebo was opened on the 2d 
of Orebo. f February, 1529. As the Archiepiscopal 
See of Upsala was not yet filled, it was represented by 
Lars Anderson, who was appointed President. The 
assembly was thus constituted as a National Synod. 
Besides the three bishops — neither of whom was cor- 
dially in favor of the Reformation — there were nineteen 
canons, eleven rectors of the larger churches, eight 
monks and many of the parochial clergy. No record 
of the preceedings and debates of the council, with the 
exception of the decree which it passed, remains. If 
its members were not overawed by the knowledge that 
the eye of the king was on them, the debates in an as- 
sembly so composed must have been earnest, if not 
stormy. But, whatever might have been the secret 
opinions of some of its members, the decree included 
but little that was not distinctly Protestant. It may be 
divided into three heads, (1) preaching, (2) discipline, 
(3) church usages and ceremonies. The principal pro- 
visions, were these: Better provision shall be made for 
the preaching of the Gospel over the realm. The bish- 
ops were enjoined to preach, and to secure well instructed 
preachers, under the penalty of losing their benefices. 
One lesson at least from the Scriptures, with a good and 
sound exposition was ordered to be read daily in the ca- 
thedrals and public schools. The lectures of the schools 
should be so arranged that the choristers should have 
an opportunity of attending them. Learned preachers 



The Reformation in Sweden. 109 

were to be appointed in towns, to whom all rural preachers 
might resort for instruction. Afternoon lectures were 
to be delivered in the monasteries. Sermons were to 
be begun and ended with prayer. At every preaching, 
the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ave Maria (which 
it was not thought prudent yet to set aside) were to be 
repeated; the ten commandments also were to be read 
twice a month. 

In the matter of discipline the Penitentiaries were 
strictly enjoined to use more sharpness with manslay- 
ers and other criminals. As the frequent Holy Days 
gave much occasion to rioting and sin, it was ordered 
that our Lord's own festivals, the Virgin's, the Apos- 
tles' and those of the national patron saints should be 
retained, and the rest abolished. Scholars were for- 
bidden to go from parish to parish to collect alms, as 
the custom gave rise to many abuses. Marriage of the 
priests was allowed. The Penitentiaries of the cathe- 
drals were empowered to use such severity in their 
dealings with murderers as they should see fit, and 
this exceptional power to inflict civil penalties for 
crimes was placed on the singular ground that "the 
worldly sword appears to be idle, and has not the 
force that it ought to have." Each bishop may limit 
the number of saints' days as he shall judge to be 
most for edification. 

In the explanation of church ceremonies, there is 
an effort made to show their true and salutary use and 
meaning as distinguished from the superstitions which 
had gathered about them in the public mind. Consecra- 
ted water cannot take away sin, for that is effected only 
by the blood of Christ. Images are not for worship, but 
only for bringing Christ and the saints into remem- 
brance. Candlemas lights have no enlightening power 



no The Reformation in Sweden. 

for the mind, but are only symbols of the true light of 
the world, Christ Jesus. Chrism does not convey, but 
is only a sign of the Holy Ghost. The ringing of bells 
has no power over evil spirits, but is of use only in 
calling the people to Church. "Church structures are 
kept up, not for any peculiar sanctity in themselves, 
for the worship of God, but that men may meet to- 
gether there and learn God's Word." " Fast days are 
kept, not as special worship done to God, but to tame 
our lustful bodies." Explanations similar to these con- 
cerning saints' days and pilgrimages follow. Such was 
the system on which the Reformation was established 
in Sweden, and such substantially it continued under 
manifold difficulties, which hindered its complete as- 
cendency, during the whole reign of King Gustavus. 
r It was inevitable that such great changes, 

tions and however skillfully prepared for and gradu- 
Commotions. My introducedj wou i d awaken opposition 

and lead to popular commotions and revolts. A large 
part of the reign of Gustavus was occupied in struggling 
against insurrections. They were caused partly by dis- 
satisfaction with the king's ecclesiastical reforms, and 
partly by the heavy taxation which he was compelled 
to impose. An insurrection was attempted to be or- 
ganized by the High Steward, Thure Johnson. He 
gathered a number of the leading men of West Goth- 
land, and urged them to depose the king who had 
forsaken the Christian religion, persecuted the Church, 
and usurped the throne which belonged of right to 
the house of Sture. But the appeal was unsuccessful. 
Johnson was compelled to flee, after having committed 
some overt acts of rebellion, by which his life would 
have been forfeited. Gustavus issued a decree of ob- 
livion for all who had been implicated in this attempt 



The Reformation in Sweden. hi 

— except two prominent and leading lords. He thus, 
according to his usual policy, so blended mercy with 
severity that the dissatisfied might be intimidated, and 
the forgiven be led by gratitude or fear to become loyal 
or quiet in the future. 

Diet y At the Diet which was summoned in conse- 
Strengness. quence of this insurrection Gustavus repelled 
the charges which were made by Johnson the pretext 
for rebellion. To the charge of fostering heresy he 
answered that it was not he but the Lord who had 
commanded the pure preaching of the Gospel. As to 
other points of doctrine he was content that learned 
men should meet and adjust them. He denied that 
he had broken his oath to preserve the privileges of 
the Church, for it had been decided at Westeras what 
those privileges were, and those, thus authoritatively 
defined, he had preserved. The old oath of subjection 
to the Pope and his agents he had indeed declined to 
take; and when he pledged himself to protect the 
Church he understood, and none better than Thure 
Johnson knew that he understood, that he took upon 
himself the obligation, "to protect and uphold the 
Church and Churchmen, that is to say his Christian 
subjects, since the Holy Church is no other than the 
congregation of Christian men and women. Did any 
one interpret his oath as confined to bishops, prelates 
and priests? then let him remember that the diminu- 
tion of their power was affected by the council and 
estates of the kingdom." The appropriation of con- 
vents to the establishment of hospitals and schools 
and to the urgent necessities of the Government, had 
proved an equal advantage to both the Church and 
State. It is true that he had taken many valuables 
from the convents when they became empty, but he 



ii2 The Reformation in Sweden. 

had used them partly for the aid of the Government, 
and partly to maintain students in theology, that there 
might be a supply of persons qualified to teach and to 
preach throughout the kingdom. The Swedish Mass 
he had not forbidden, and the Latin Mass he had al- 
lowed to be used only in part with the Swedish; be- 
cause it was more edifying for the people to hear and 
use language which they understood than to hear and 
repeat by rote an unknown tongue. 

We get an insight into the deplorable previous con- 
dition of Sweden, and the overshadowing and blighting 
influence of the Church, from the further explanations 
of Gustavus in reference to the decrees of Westeras, 
which had been adduced as one of the great moving 
causes of the rebellion. The king explained fully the 
reasons which had led to their enactment. They had 
found that the worldly engagements of the bishops in- 
terfered with their duty as preachers of God's Word; 
their power and their strongholds with the king's rights, 
and the administration of justice; and were besides in- 
consistent with our Saviour's commands that His min- 
isters should not be temporal princes. They had found 
that the estates and tenants of the convents were grossly 
neglected; that the monks in each had diminished from 
forty or fifty or sixty, to five or six; and that owing to 
their ample provision they were leading luxurious lives. 
Moreover they believed that God would be better wor- 
shiped by more preaching and less singing and reading; 
and that monasteries and cathedrals with a large staff 
of clergy were not necessary to the right performance 
of divine service. It also appeared from the old registers 
that where there had formerly been a hundred nobles, 
there were now only three or four; the nobles had been 
induced through superstition, or when hard pressed for 



The Reformation in Sweden. 113 

money, to mortgage their estates to monasteries; and 
hence their descendants became peasants, and almost 
all the revenues of the country were in the hands of the 
clergy, who gave no personal service to the crown ; and 
the kingdom was deprived of those men of high birth 
and large wealth who constituted the ornament and 
support of the throne. 

Third ' Re ^ e third and last revolt of the Dalesmen 
volt of the was brought about by a cause which touched 
Dalesmen. the sent i ments anc j feelings no less than the 

pockets of the sturdy and pugnacious malcontents. It 
seems that up to the year 1529 the debt due to Lubeck 
had not been paid, although imposts had been laid for 
the specific purpose of discharging it. In that year it 
became no longer possible to evade the payment. The 
Lubeckers threatened to detain Swedish ships as se- 
curity for the debt. Accordingly at Orebo, in 1 531, it 
was agreed that, in addition to the appropriation for a 
time of the tithes for that purpose, the superfluous bells 
of the town and country parishes should be given up or 
redeemed. 

These decrees produced everywhere, and especially 
in the Dales, the most intense dissatisfaction. The 
removal of the most valuable bells in a chime changed 
old familiar melodies into a painful jangle, and broke 
up many sacred associations which were dearer to the 
people than they knew before they were destroyed. 
The Swedes always have been and still are very fond 
of church bells; and in many small villages in Sweden 
the tourist will often be surprised at the fine tone and 
sweet chimes of bells in poor and plain churches. The 
bells, moreover, had acquired something of a sacred 
character by having been christened and anointed. 
The removal of them caused another revolt in Dale- 



ii4 The Reformation in Sweden. 

carlia, which was put down with no little difficulty. 
The futile attempts to adjust this difficulty need not 
be described. The process of calling a conference, and 
surrounding it with soldiers, of arresting and executing 
the leaders of the revolt, and the renewal of pledges 
of obedience, were all again repeated. This was the 
last commotion which had any connection with ecclesi- 
astical affairs for a number of years succeeding. The 
Dalesmen learned at length that they had to do with 
a king who would not surrender his prerogatives; who 
would deal sternly and even unjustly with his subjects 
when the safety of the State or of his throne was in 
question; whose prudence defeated all their schemes, 
and whose severity punished every outrage. 
Provision The most important portion of the decree 
for Preach- f Orebo was that which enjoined that pro- 
l ChurchSer- vision should be made by the bishops for 
vices. the preaching of the Gospel. But Gustavus 

did not leave the execution of the decree to those who 
he well knew would not cordially enforce it. He sent 
one or two learned and able preachers to each diocese, 
to preach in the cathedrals, and to establish cathedral 
schools for the training of a preaching ministry. The 
indefatigable Olaus Petri prepared postils — correspond- 
ing to the English book of homilies — for the people, 
to be read by those priests who were incompetent to 
prepare suitable sermons of their own. He also pro- 
vided a church manual in the Swedish tongue. This 
was not published by the authority of any church 
synod, but it came into - general use. In this there 
were offices for the sick, for baptism, marriage and 
burial, as well as for the performance of the public 
services. Two years later, when the introduction of 
the Mass in the Swedish tongue was complained of by 



The Reformation in Sweden. 115 

the Dalesmen, Olaus published a work in which he 
showed the propriety of this arrangement; and at the 
same time the office for the Swedish Mass, as it is still 
used in Sweden, was prepared by him. It has been 
noticed that no direction for preaching is given, and 
no place assigned for it, in the first four editions of this 
book. But the use of the book soon extended through 
the kingdom, and the point in the service where the 
preaching should take place was designated in 1548. 
The necessity for this movement and its gradual in- 
fluence are thus described by the Swedish historian, 
Anjou: 

"Of the success of a work so important to the Ref- 
ormation, by acquainting the people with the Gospel 
and its meaning, by introducing true evangelical free- 
dom through a true faith in the Son, who makes us 
truly free, we cannot expect to procure information 
from times yet unable to prepare workmen to culti- 
vate the field of the church. The preaching of God's 
Word, the purifying of divine service from superstitions 
and strange practices, and from a language not under- 
stood, together with the reclaiming of the ecclesiastical 
constitution from being a hindrance to being a means 
of furthering the kingdom of God, were important steps, 
and the commencement of a holy progress to a holy 
end." 

The Metropolitan See of Upsala had been 

Laurentius J r ^ , . . . ri1 

Petri Elect- vacant for ten years, lhis omission to till 
edArchbish- th e mos t important see in Sweden probably 
arose, partly from the fact that the king 
could draw from it while vacant a large revenue, and 
partly from his manifestly increasing indifference, if, 
not repugnance, to the Episcopal constitution of the 
Church. Lars Anderson, his chancellor, often remon- 



n6 The Reformation in Sweden. 

strated with Gustavus at this delay; and this was the 
beginning and the cause of the alienation between 
them. But so great had the dissatisfaction of the 
country become, in consequence of this long delay, 
and the evils which it involved, that the king was 
compelled to take measures in 1530 for filling the see. 
The Bishop of Abo, Jno Skyette, was elected, but 
declined. Bishop Sven, of Skara, was elected by the 
Chapter of Upsala, and he also declined. In the spring 
of 1 53 1 the king summoned an assembly of the bishops 
and the chief clergy of the kingdom to Stockholm, to 
elect an archbishop. Laurentius Petri was elected 
by a large majority. It is mentioned as an indica- 
tion of the predominant Protestant sentiment of the 
body, that one hundred and fifty votes out of one hun- 
dred and seventy-one were cast for the well-known 
uncompromising champion of the Reformation, while 
only seven of the remaining twenty-one votes were 
cast for candidates who were regarded as lukewarm 
towards the new or secretly devoted to the old system. 
The new archbishop was but thirty-two years of age. 
For forty years he administered the see with wisdom 
and gentleness, and with an unswerving adherence to 
his Protestant principles in the midst of difficulties 
which arose on the one hand from the encroachments 
of the king on his prerogatives, and on the other from 
the pressure of those who desired to push the Refor- 
mation further forward. 

Changes in After tlie fli £ ht ° f Bisll °P Brask tn e See of 

the other Linkoping was committed to Bishop Jons. 
Sees. After Bishop Magnus, of Skara, had aban- 

doned his diocese it was placed under the care of its 
provost-master, Sven, who was subsequently elected 
bishop of the see. These proceedings were a practical 



The Reformation in Sweden. 117 

proclamation of independence of the Pope, who, as 
Bishops Brask and Magnus had not resigned their sees, 
still regarded them as their rightful incumbents. In 
1530 Jons Bethius, Canon of Wexio, became its Bishop, 
on the death of Bishop Ingemar. Magnus Sommer, of 
Strengness, and Petrus Magni, of Westeras, were all 
that were now left of the bishops who had approved or 
acquiesced in the decrees of Westeras. But when they 
were led to hope that, by the aid of Charles V., Chris- 
tian II. might recover his three thrones, they circulated 
treasonable appeals to the people from the exiled Arch- 
bishop Trolle and Bishop Magnus, of Skara. The king 
had summoned the three bishops elect to appear at 
Stockholm for their consecration and his own nuptials. 
He had also summoned the Bishops of Strengness and 
Westeras to officiate at the consecration of the arch- 
bishop and the three bishops elect. Their conduct on 
this occasion shows that they were not the stuff of 
which martyrs are made. Just before their journey 
to Stockholm they prepared a protestation, in which 
they declared their abhorrence of the soul-destroying 
heresy of Luther, and of the consecration of the intruded 
bishops and archbishop, which they were compelled 
unwillingly to perform "under the influence of appre- 
hensions and fears which may well arise even in firm 
minds." This cowardly document was not to be made 
public unless a change of dynasty should make it nec- 
essary as a matter of self-defense. Whether the king 
knew of its existence is doubtful; but he was quite well 
aware of the secret disloyalty of both these prelates. 
Bishop Petrus retained his office until his death in 1534, 
and was succeeded the year after by Herrick Johannes, 
who became an ardent Reformer. Bishop Sommer was 
imprisoned by the king in 1536, was released after eight 



n8 The Reformation in Sweden. 

months, but not again restored to his see. He ended 
his days in the cloister of Krokek as an avowed member 
of the Church of Rome, and in the undisturbed enjoy- 
ment of its faith, in the year 1543. Thus as early as 
1 53 1 the Swedish Church was completely established 
in independence of the Church of Rome. All of its 
bishops professed, and all but two sincerely embraced, 
and earnestly propagated, the Protestant faith. But 
as yet its rules of discipline were uncertain, and the 
power of the king in ecclesiastical questions was prac- 
tically supreme. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CONDITION OF THE CHURCH TO THE CLOSE OF THE 
REIGN OF KING GUSTAVUS. 

DURING the five years between 1531 and 
1536 Gustavus seems to have consoh- 
Life of the dated his power, and to have had some pros- 
pect of the peaceful reign for which he longed, 
and which he was never to enjoy. He had foiled the 
Lubeckers in their attempt to reinstate Christian. That 
tyrant was defeated and imprisoned, and no more danger 
was to be feared from him. The turbulent Dalesmen were 
thoroughly humbled and subdued, and would hence- 
forth give him no further trouble. An heir was born 
to him, and thus the power to agitate the country with 
intrigues for the succession was much diminished. But 
in that moment of the seeming greatest security he was 
in fact in the greatest peril. A plot against his life, 
concocted by demagogues in Lubeck, in connection with 
some German burghers of Stockholm, which had re- 
mained passive while the result of the war was uncertain, 
was after its conclusion revived and ripened. The con- 
spirators prepared a number of schemes for the murder 
of the king, to be employed in turn if it should prove to 
be necessary. First, a barrel of gunpowder furnished 
with a fuse, capable of burning three hours, was to be 
placed under his seat in the high church, and to be 



120 The Reformation in Sweden. 

exploded during the divine service. Should this fail, 
Anders Hanson, the king's master of the mint, who 
had married a sister of Bishop Brask, was to stab him 
in the Treasury of Stockholm Castle. If this scheme 
should fail, he was to be taken off by poison. The 
loyal inhabitants of Stockholm were then to be mur- 
dered, and the city to be included in the Hanseatic 
League. On the day before that appointed for the 
execution of the plot, a drunken sailor, made desperate 
by need, was engaged to fire the train. Returning 
home intoxicated from a carouse with those by whom 
he was employed, he revealed to a neighbor and his 
w r ife what was to take place on the following day. The 
latter immediately sent word to the commandant of 
Stockholm, and before morning all the conspirators 
were secured and most of them executed. 
The Atti- It is evident that Gustavus came very little 
tude of Gus- under the influence of the clergv, and that 

tavus to- . ill n - i i- i-i i 

wards the he regarded them generally with dislike, and 
Clergy. was inclined to treat them with severity when 

they exhibited a grasping spirit or intrigued against 
him. Yet he did not fail to do justice and to render 
honor to those who were faithful and godly men; and 
he himself was beyond doubt, from full conviction a 
sincere believer. We can scarcely wonder that such 
should have been his feeling, especially towards the 
bishops and the higher clergy, to whom all the evils 
and burdens of the country were due, and by whom all 
the rebellions that had arisen either originated or had 
been fostered, and from many of whom he had received 
only gross treachery and ingratitude in return for the 
favors he had heaped upon them. We can plainly trace 
this feeling in several incidents which occurred after 
the supremacy of the Reformation had become assured. 



The Reformation in Sweden. 121 

We see it in his treatment of Bishop Sommer, and 
of his successor, Bishop Bothvid. During the festivities 
connected with the king's second marriage, Bishop 
Sommer declared that he could no longer sanction and 
support the Lutheran religion. At an earlier period 
of his reign the king would undoubtedly have allowed 
him to retain his see, and would have restricted him 
only from the practice of those abuses and extortions 
by which the Roman clergy had heretofore oppressed 
their flocks. But upon this declaration of the bishop, 
made incidentally under a sudden impulse, and not 
intended as a formal announcement of his purpose, 
Gustavus immediately, without invoking the interven- 
tion or advice of his clergy, deposed him. His successor, 
an Evangelical Canon of Linkoping, named Bothvid, 
being asked by the king, who had cast a longing eye 
on his Episcopal palace, ''In what chapter of the Bible 
is it written that the bishops of Strengness should live 
in palaces of stone?" replied, "In the same chapter 
that gives the kings of Sweden Church-tithes!" The 
repartee was bright but indiscreet, and is said well 
nigh to have provoked the fate of his predecessor. 
The Trial ^ e strength of this feeling of hostility to 
and Con- the clergy on the part of Gustavus is pain- 
tf Lars aZ MX Y apparent from his treatment of his two 
derson and nearest and most trusted friends, Anderson 
' and Petri. Their trial and condemnation to 
death four years after the conspiracy, upon charges 
which, if proved, would not have been high treason, 
and the alleged proof of which was most vague and un- 
satisfactory, lead to the inevitable inference that it was 
passion and prejudice which drove the king to the com- 
mission of a great crime, which was aggravated by its 
gross ingratitude. These were the two friends who 



122 The Reformation in Sweden. 

more than any and all others most thoroughly entered 
into his convictions and plans for the Reformation. . 
The causes of his alienation from them arose from 
changes in himself, rather than from any deviation on 
their part, from the policy and proceedings which he 
had formerly approved. The chancellor sometimes 
acted with less direct reference to the king in the de- 
cisions which came within his jurisdiction than* the 
latter, more and more bent on absorbing all power, 
temporal and spiritual, approved. Olaus, full of en- 
thusiasm and zeal, sometimes uttered from the pulpit 
sharp reproofs, which touched Gustavus nearly, and 
Avhich he could not but see were directed against him. 
But these were surely pardonable faults on the part of 
those to whom he and Sweden owed such immense 
obligations. The two charges upon which they were 
convicted by the commission appointed for their trial, 
were that they had been cognizant of the conspiracy 
which was. discovered four years since and had not di- 
vulged it, because it was made known to them under 
the seal of the confessional, and that Olaus in the Swed- 
ish Chronicles, which were published ten years before, 
had made severe reflections which the king believed, 
but without probability or proof, were directed against 
him. 

The first charge seems upon the face of it most im- 
probable. Lars Anderson had earnestly promoted the 
Reformation and at an early period, at the command 
of the king, had translated the New Testament into 
Swedish, and had with great reputation filled the office 
of High Chancellor of the Kingdom. Olaus Petri, by 
his preaching and publications and the composition of 
the Church Manual, had vindicated the Reformation 
and given shape and organization to the Church. He 



The Reformation in Sweden. 123 

had also succeeded Anderson in the office of High 
Chancellor. And, although a qualified confessional 
was retained in the early period of the Reformed 
Swedish Church, it is yet incredible that one whom 
Gustavus felt to be rather too much than too little of a 
Reformer and one so near and dear and devoted to the 
king, from conscientious scruples which only bigoted 
Romanists could entertain, had kept a secret on which 
not only the life of one whom he so much honored, but 
also the welfare of the kingdom and the success of the 
Reformation, depended. That Gustavus, who had so 
often exhibited indifference to abuse and retained his 
dignity in the midst of gross misrepresentations, should 
have been so stung by seeming reflections against him, 
which were published ten years before, and the appli- 
cation of which to himself seems doubtful, shows that 
a great change must have come over him, the causes 
of which will presently appear. It was a most painful 
incident in this mysterious trial that the Archbishop 
Laurentius Petri was compelled to preside and sit in 
judgment on his brother. The lives of both of the ac- 
cused were spared, as it was probably the purpose of 
Gustavus that they should be. But the position of Olaus 
in the popular regard appears from the fact that his life 
was ransomed by a large sum of money advanced for 
him by the burghers of Stockholm. His vindication 
also seems to have been pronounced by the people, 
and virtually acquiesced in by Gustavus himself, by his 
restoration three years after to the Rectorship of the 
Church in Stockholm. Anderson ransomed his life at 
the price of the surrender of all that he possessed. He 
remained under the royal displeasure and died in pov- 
erty and obscurity. 

It was a cruel proceeding — this condemnation of 



124 The Reformation in Sweden. 

those whose services to the king and the Reformation 
had been so great, and whose offense, even if it had 
been proved, which it was not, was not worthy of death. 
It has left an ineffaceable stain upon the else luminous 
and glorious record of the Great King's history. The 
just and right-minded son of Gustavus, Charles IX., 
was so convinced upon examination of the innocence 
of these victims of his father's injustice "that he would 
not allow the charges against them to remain in the 
history of his father." 

Causes of The growing feeling of alienation from the 
the Change clergy was greatly increased by the advent 

in the Views . . 

and Policy of two foreigners into the kingdom, through 
of the King, wno se influence a new policy in ecclesiastical 
affairs was introduced. Gustavus was led by them into 
the adoption in theory and in practice of the most high- 
handed Erastianism. His dislike of the Episcopate, 
which was the greatest obstacle to the power of the 
king in spirituals, was also inflamed into positive hos- 
tility by the same agency. It was Conrad Peutinger, 
who came into Sweden from Germany in 1538, and be- 
came Cantor of the Cathedral of Upsala, who poisoned 
the mind of Gustavus against Olaus Petri and Lars An- 
derson, and secretly put in motion the proceedings 
which led to their trial and condemnation. In his pro- 
ject for bringing the Church of Sweden into conformity 
to the Lutheran churches of Germany he found an ef- 
ficient co-worker in an ordained Pomeranian noble, 
George Norman, who had studied at Wittenberg, and 
who also arrived in Sweden in 1538, as the tutor 
of Prince Eric, heir to the Swedish throne. They dwelt 
in their conversations with the king upon the differences 
between the Church in Sweden and all the Lutheran 
churches of Europe, and aggravated the restrictions to 



The Reformation in Sweden. 125 

which he was subjected. " The king in Sweden ought 
to have the same power over the Church as was exer- 
cised by all the German princes. Henry VIII. of Eng- 
land had made himself head of the Church in his king- 
dom. In the constitution of the Church, bishops might 
well be dispensed with, or at least limited in the exer- 
cise of their powers. Neither Luther nor Melancthon 
were bishops." These representations fell on willing 
ears. " The king was now transformed into a Protes- 
tant in the strictest sense of the term, after the pattern 
of German Lutheranism." 
n . After the condemnation of Olaus Petri and 

Depression 

of the Epis- Anderson, these two foreigners enjoyed the 
copate. f u ij confident f the king, and directed the 

ecclesiastical affairs of the kingdom. Gustavus himself 
adopted a harsh and angry tone towards the clergy. 
He reproached them for what he called their injudicious 
alterations of harmless old usages, which were dear to 
the people, and whose removal excited their anger. 
He signified to them that he perceived, that like the 
old priesthood, they aimed to become his master. Peu- 
tin'ger was advanced to the chancellorship of the king- 
dom, and Norman was invested with a superintendency 
whose power extended to all the clergy, and/ made in 
effect the archbishop to be under his authority and in 
a sense subject to his jurisdiction. If it were not, as 
there is reason to suppose that it was, the design of 
this arrangement ultimately to abolish Episcopacy, it 
cannot be denied that such was its tendency, and that 
its immediate effect was to depress and rob it of its old 
traditional dignity and power. The king, apparently 
in imitation of Henry VIII., and employing almost 
identical phraseology, announced himself as "the su- 
preme defender of the Christian faith over the whole 



126 The Reformation in Sweden. 

realm;" and in a letter to all his bishops, prelates and 
other spiritual pastors and preachers, appointed George. 
Norman as his ordinary and superintendent. Norman, 
with the consent of a council and assistant, was em- 
powered to exercise the king's jurisdiction over bish- 
ops, prelates and all other spiritual persons. He was 
to see that all preachers should set an example of godly 
living to the subjects of the king. All spiritual persons 
were to be inducted into office by him, and his visita- 
tions were to be made at the times and places desig- 
nated by the king. A board of elders who were lay- 
men were to follow the superintendent and see that 
the regulations which he had prescribed were carried 
into effect. One of the prerogatives of the office of su- 
perintendent, the execution of which caused much 
clamor, was the authority to abstract from the churches 
as much of their ornaments and the old appliances for 
worship, with their gold and silver and jewels, as he 
should judge needful for the king's service. This new 
office reduced the archbishops and the bishops to in- 
significance and inaction. From the year 1544 the king 
ceased to give the Episcopal title to any of the bishops 
except the Archbishop of Upsala. The other bishops 
were called "ordinaries;" and as all jurisdiction was 
practically taken from them by the Superintendent and 
his assistants, nothing remained to them but the power 
of preaching and ordaining. To diminish still further 
their importance and their power, the sees of Upsala 
and of Linkoping were divided into three dioceses, and 
those of Westeras and Strengness each into two. This 
continued to be the condition and constitution of the 
Church in Sweden from the year 1544 to the close of his 
reign in 1560. From this period to the end of his reign 
Gustavus openly claimed absolute authority in Church 



The Reformation in Sweden. 127 

and State. In a letter to the peasantry in the affair 
of Dieting, he thus wrote: 

" Ye would wish to be far better scholars than we 
and many good men beside, and hold much more fast 
by the traitorous abuses of the old bishops and papists 
than by the Word and Gospel of the living God. Far 
be this thought from you! Tend your households, fields 
and meadows, wives and children, kine and sheep, but 
set to us no bounds in government and religion. Since 
it behooveth us a Christian monarch, for God's sake and 
for righteousness, conformably to all natural reason to 
appoint ordinances and rules for you, so that if ye would 
not look to have wrath and chastisement from us, ye 
should be obedient to our royal commandment as well 
in religion as in temporals." 

Conditionof As tne Church was settled in the form of the 
the Church superintendency of a presbyter over bishops, 
new ar- the Archbishop of Upsala alone receiving the 
rangement. t j t i e f bishop, all others of that order being 
called ordinaries — so did it continue during the remain- 
der of the reign of Gustavus. The absolutism which 
the king had established over the Church — the open and 
peremptory Erastianism which he had persuaded him- 
self was the only method of preserving the Church from 
falling back into the power of the papacy — continued 
undiminished. In the midst of the difficulties in which 
Gustavus was involved, and the amazing activity which 
he displayed, in bringing his kingdom into an orderly 
administration, and in developing its resources, we can 
trace but few notices of the condition of the Church. 
Here and there we hear of an appropriation of Church 
or monastic property by the king, which causes loud 
complaints; of the efforts of the king to secure a better 
educated clergy; of his heavy hand laid upon the nobles; 



128 The Reformation in Sweden. 

who abused the power of reclaiming estates given to the 
Church since the inquest of Charles Canutson, and of the 
gradual decrease of the partisans of the old Church and 
the corresponding increase of the adherents to the new. 
The characteristics of the Church thus settled, most of 
which have continued to the present day, may thus be 
briefly indicated. 

1. In consequence of the toleration of the Church 
of Rome, and of the efforts of Gustavus, while he re- 
moved its abuses, to avoid as far as possible to irritate 
the people by too sudden a change in the externals of 
worship which did not immediately involve and express 
superstition and error, there were retained in the Church 
services more of paraphernalia and ceremonialism than 
was usual in the Lutheran churches in countries where the 
Roman worship was suppressed, and Episcopacy did not 
obtain. The cross and crucifixes and candles and gor- 
geous garments in the administration of the Lord's Sup- 
per and an elaborate ritual were still maintained. 

2. Another characteristic which honorably distin- 
guishes this Church and is especially to be commended 
in Gustavus to whom it is due, in view of the exasper- 
ating and traitorous opposition which he endured from 
the partisans of the Papal Church, was the absence of 
persecution and the toleration of the Church which so 
constantly labored to overthrow both Protestantism 
and the king. There were no fines, punishments, im- 
prisonments or executions for holding and openly pro- 
fessing the faith and practicing the ceremonies of the 
Roman Church. There was indeed a cutting off of its 
civil privileges and supremacy, a protection of the citi- 
zens and of the members of the Church itself from the 
extortions of the priesthood, a resumption of Church and 
monastic property for the uses of the State, a reduction 



The Reformation in Sweden. 129 

of the livings of the high ecclesiastics to a very narrow 
allowance compared with that of former times, and a 
swift and sharp punishment of treason, with no regard 
to rank or priestly sanctity, when it sheltered itself under 
the plea of religion, and of supreme obligation to the See 
of Rome. All this would indeed be called persecution 
by those whose privileges were abridged; but there 
were no cruelties exercised against peaceable and loyal 
members of the Church of Rome, merely because of their 
adherence to the old faith. We cannot say so much of 
the Lutheran Churches of Germany in their relation to 
the members of the Roman and Reformed Churches, or 
of the Church of England in relation to Romanists and 
Puritans. Later indeed in the history of Sweden, after 
prolonged and reiterated proofs of the essentially trai- 
torous and rebellious character of Romanism, this toler- 
ant policy ceased, and the public profession of Roman- 
ism was not allowed. 

TheCivilAd ^ e secu l ar historian of the last sixteen 
ministration years of the reign of Gustavus would find 
of ustavus. - n - t a b unc iant proofs of his great adminis- 
trative ability, his wonderful activity, his successful ef- 
forts to stimulate the industry of the people, and de- 
velop the resources of the kingdom, and the steady 
increase of veneration and admiration for him, notwith- 
standing much vexatious opposition to which he was 
exposed from his pugnacious subjects. He would also 
be compelled to admit that Gustavus became greedy 
of appropriating to himself, sometimes with little or no 
claim, a large share of the forfeited property of the 
churches and the monasteries; and that he accumulated 
in his palace a large treasure, subsequently squandered 
by his half-crazy son and successor, which might have 
been well employed in promoting the material and 



130 The Reformation in Sweden. 

moral welfare of the people. During the remainder of 
his life there were no serious internal revolts; and but 
one brief war with Russia in reference to the boundary 
of Finland. In view of the enormous difficulties which 
he encountered, the reign of Gustavus is one of the most 
remarkable in the history of Europe, and entitles him 
to a place only second to that of the few greatest mon- 
archs — such as Alfred and Charlemagne and William 
the Conqueror — who were pre-eminent in their time, 
and have left the impress of their genius on all subse- 
quent generations. 

Secular ard I nasmucn as we have thus far dealt chiefly 
Religious with the class that have the highest educa- 
andtheCon- ca tion — the clergy— and as something has 
ditionofthe been said of the efforts of the king for the 
ergy ' secular and religious education of the peo- 

ple, a higher idea of the civilization of Sweden at this 
period may be inferred than the facts will warrant. 
When one narrates the public events of a country poor 
and but partially civilized, or but little advanced in the 
refinements of life, in the same phraseology with which 
he speaks of kingdoms that are rich and cultivated, he 
may convey a wrong impression without misstating 
facts. It is natural to describe the public events of 
Sweden and France, for instance, secular and religious, 
in the same phraseology; and yet in the one case it is 
the history of a comparatively poor people in whose 
higher classes there was great simplicity of life and no 
little remaining rudeness of manners, in the other it is 
a history of a people whose aristocracy were highly 
cultivated and luxurious, and surrounded with all the 
appliances of a refined civilization. Hence it is impor- 
tant to present a sketch of the condition of education 
in the kingdom, with the remark that if it does not ex- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 131 

hibit a bright picture of the national life, it still should 
be remembered that it shows a great advance over the 
state of things which prevailed previous to the reign 
of Gustavus. 

One of the native historians of the kingdom 
the Clergy, gives this account of it, as it appeared to- 
andthePeo- wa rds the close of the reign of Gustavus. 

" The older seminaries of instruction had 
been too closely connected with the ancient church not 
to be involved in its downfall. Hvitfeld and Messenius 
indeed state that Gustavus in 1540 revived the Univer- 
sity of Upsala, founded twenty years before; and two 
years previously we find him complaining that circum- 
stances did not permit him to complete this work which 
it was his desire to accomplish. In the archives of his 
reign no trace of its actual performance is to be found, 
although they supply many proofs of the king's foster- 
ing care for the schools, which nevertheless do not ap- 
pear in all respects to have answered their object if we 
may judge by the trenchant reproof addressed by him 
to the bishops in the year preceding his death, relative 
to the character of the persons who were supplied to him 
by the schools for the service of the State. A learned 
Swede who resided abroad draws at the same time a dark 
picture of the condition of his country in this respect, 
and concludes that the large hoard of gold and silver, 
the military stores, the ships, the arms and the fortifi- 
cations were rather detrimental than profitable; inas- 
much as out of all the bands which the king every- 
where maintained, not without great cost and to the 
sore molestation of the subject, not ten men were to 
be found whose counsel he might employ in the affairs 
of his kingdom; and the same held true of the nobles, 
of the heads of the church, and of the priests. Lieuten- 



132 The Reformation in Sweden. 

ants and persons in authority kept each of them a sec- 
retary to read and answer the king's letters, as they 
were themselves unable to do so. Of the rudeness and 
ignorance of the clergy many proofs remain. Their 
manner of embracing the principles of the Reforma- 
tion often consisted only in marrying their house- 
keepers, in order thereby to legitimate the offspring 
which they had borne them. The evangelical minis- 
ters themselves did not always set an edifying exam- 
ple. The abolition of the old church discipline before 
the new order of things was matured, was generally 
productive of injurious effects on domestic morals. The 
king, whose own life was pure, and deportment blame- 
less, often denounces the prevailing corruption of man- 
ners. To what extent this reached where other cir- 
cumstances favored the lawlessness of the ill-disposed, 
as on the frontiers, is best shown by his letter to the 
inhabitants of the prefecture of Kronoberg in 1554. In 
this, referring probably to the visitation of 1550, he re- 
proves those who, living on the borders, and moving 
hither and thither, now into Denmark and now into 
Sweden, are regardless of their marriage vow, and take 
to wife one woman after another, as they would change 
their horses. He commanded the prefects to watch 
narrowly the proceedings of these loose companions. 
At the same time the severity of the temporal penal- 
ties was increased till at length adultery was punished 
with death. 

The latter ^ ne l atter days of Gustavus were darkened 
DaysofGus- by great domestic sorrows. His eldest son 
Eric, the heir to the throne, a prince of great 
ability, but vicious and eccentric, and excitable to a 
degree little short of derangement, caused him great 
trouble, and filled him with anxiety for the future of 



The Reformation in Sweden. 133 

himself and of his kingdom. The king had assigned 
to him the province of Calmar; and there he had ex- 
ercised his authority with reckless cruelty, and sur- 
rounded himself with a gay and licentious court and 
plunged into revelry and excess. And that which 
broke the heart of the king, and sent him soon after 
to the grave, was the misconduct of his favorite beau- 
tiful and gifted daughter Cecelia. " The court poets," 
says the historian Freyxell, "praise her as lovelier 
than Venus; they could not sufficiently extol her 
white skin, her golden hair, and her sparkling eyes; 
and they protested that her soul was adorned with 
equal virtues. But she soon exhibited an incorri- 
gible levity and vanity which led her to a guilty in- 
trigue with Count Edgard of Friesland; and to an 
after-life of frequent adulteries, and of intemperance, 
which ended in a dishonored and disowned old age. 
Eric caused his father much anxiety, and great ex- 
pense, in his Quixotic efforts to secure the hand of the 
Princess Elizabeth, afterward queen, of England. 
Without the slightest encouragement, and indeed in 
the face of emphatic dissuasives from the princess, 
he continued to urge his wild suit, and to send ex- 
pensive embassies to England. All these domestic 
troubles, and especially the dishonor of his favorite 
daughter, broke the spirits of the old king, and 
brought on a decline of health and an enfeeblement 
of his powers of body and of mind. The loss of his 
beloved wife Margaret, and of many of his contempo- 
raries, his co-workers in the task of emancipating 
Sweden, was not compensated by his union with a 
third wife, young and beautiful and excellent, Cathe- 
rine Leyohnhufwud. That indeed brought with it 
also a new element of annoyance, from the fact that 



134 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Catherine was a niece of the late queen of Gustavus, 
and that his nearest friend, Archbishop Laurentius 
Petri, and many other ecclesiastics, denounced the 
marriage as incestuous and unlawful. With failing 
powers and with frequent deep depression, the old king, 
feeling that his end was near, summoned a general 
meeting of all the States in order to receive from them 
the confirmation of his last will and testament, in 
which he appointed Eric his successor and indicated 
the disposition to be made of the great wealth and 
the numerous estates all over the kingdom which he 
had acquired. The scene of that last audience of the 
king with his States was very impressive. 
The King's The meeting took place in the hall of audi- 
lastspeechto^ ence j n the palace of Stockholm on the 25th 
and his of June. When the States were assembled 
Death. the king entered, leaning upon the arms of 

his two eldest sons. His sons Duke Eric, Duke John 
and Duke Magnus stood at his left hand in the order 
of their age; and his young son Duke Charles, still a 
child, stood by his knee. The king having saluted 
the States, they listened for the last time to the elo- 
quence which they liked so well, that when in the 
Diet Gustavus deputed some one else to speak for him 
they were wont to cry out that they wanted to hear 
their father-king. Then the king spoke as follows: — 
"I venerate the power of God who in me has ele- 
vated to the old throne of Sweden the old race of 
Sweden's kings from Magnus Ladulas and Karl Ca- 
nutson. Those amongst you who have attained to 
many years have doubtless learned how our dear Fa- 
therland was for many centuries before in great misery 
and oppression, under foreign rulers and kings, espe- 
cially under the harsh tyrant King Christian, and how 



The Reformation in Sweden. 135 

it has pleased God through me to deliver us from 
this tyranny. Therefore ought we, high and low, lord 
and master, old and young, never to forget the same 
Almighty aid. For what man was I to expel so 
mighty a lord, who not only ruled over three king- 
doms, but was allied and nearly connected with the 
Emperor and the most powerful princes. I could not 
imagine so great a glory would be mine when in forests 
and among the rocks of the desert, I was obliged to 
conceal myself from the sword of the blood-thirsty 
enemy. But God impelled the work and made me his 
instrument by whom his Omnipotence should be re- 
vealed; and I may well compare myself to David, 
whom the Lord took from being a poor shepherd to 
be a king over all his people — " and here the tears 
burst from his eyes. 

" I thank you, faithful subjects, that you have been 
pleased to elevate me to the royal dignity and make 
me the ancestor of your royal house. Nor less do I 
thank you for the fidelity and aid you have given me 
in my government. That during this time God has 
permitted his pure and precious Word to enter in 
among us, that also in temporal concerns he has 
prospered and endowed the kingdom with all manner 
of blessing as we see before our eyes; for this we 
ought, good men and subjects, with the greatest hu- 
mility and gratitude, to give God the glory. 

11 It is well known to me, that I, in the estimation of 
many, have been a stern king; but the time will come 
when the children of Sweden would wish to tear me 
from my grave if they could do it. But I must not 
blush to acknowledge human weaknesses and failings, 
for none is perfect and without fault. Therefore I beg 
you, that you, as faithful subjects, will for Christ's sake 



136 The Reformation in Sweden. 

forgive and overlook what errors there may have been 
in my government. My intentions have always been 
for the weal of this kingdom and its inhabitants. My 
gray hairs, my wrinkled brow, bear sufficient witness 
to the many dangers, adversities and cares, which I in 
the forty years of my reign have had to undergo. 

" I know well that the Swedes are swift to promise, 
slow to execute. I can clearly see that many spirits 
of delusion will arise in the future; I therefore pray 
and exhort you to hold fast to God's Word; and reject 
what does not agree with it. Be obedient to your 
rulers and united among yourselves. My time is soon 
out. I neither require stars nor any other sign to 
prophecy that to me. I feel in my own body the 
tokens that I shall soon go hence, and at the foot of 
the King of king's lay down my account for the glo- 
rious but perishable crown of the kingdom of Sweden. 
Follow me therefore with your faithful prayers, and 
when I have laid my eyes together let my ashes rest 
in peace." 

"With that," writes Freyxell, "he stretched out his 
hand for the last time blessing his people. His gray 
hair, his fallen, but still majestic appearance, the tears 
which sometime came into his eyes, his voice ever 
pleasant, but now tremulous with age and emotion, 
and finally the thought that they were about to lose 
him for ever — him, their father, teacher and benefactor 
— all combined to awaken the deepest emotions in the 
whole assembly. Tears streamed from every eye, and 
they could scarcely prevent their sobs from drowning 
the sound of the beloved voice. Gustavus arose and 
supporting himself on his two eldest sons, he left the 
hall, turning his head now and then, by looks and 
tearful eyes, to take yet a last farewell. The assem- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 137 

bly followed closely on his traces; those who could 
not in person followed by their looks his gray head, 
with tears imploring a thousand blessings on it." 

Gustavus died on the 29th of September and was 
buried in the cathedral of Upsala. 

Description Instead of the attempt to delineate the 
of Gustavus. character of Gustavus, I will give almost all 
the chapter in which the native historian Freyxell 
draws a graphic picture of one of the noblest and most 
interesting characters in the history of modern Europe. 
In a work the title of which is the Reformation in 
Sweden, I have done little else than describe the 
personal career of Gustavus. Inasmuch therefore 
as the history of the king cannot be separated from 
that of the Reformation, we may with propriety 
— indeed we must from necessity — give a fuller ac- 
count of the character of him by whom, in an exclu- 
sive sense which does not apply to any other monarch 
the Reformation in his country was accomplished. 
There is a great charm in the narrative which is here 
quoted — in the characteristic national simplicity of the 
picture and the essentially Swedish atmosphere which 
invests it. We see in it a true kingliness, not devoid, 
in its essential characteristics, of all the august accom- 
paniments which belong to the regal state; and yet 
connected with a simplicity of life and manners which 
is usually associated only with republican institutions. 

"King Gustavus I. was a tall and well made man, 
somewhat above six feet high. He had a firm and 
full body without spot or blemish, strong arms, deli- 
cate legs, small and beautiful hands and feet. His 
hair of a bright yellow, combed down and cut straight 
across from his eyebrows; forehead of a middle height 
with two perpendicular lines between the eyes which 



138 The Reformation in Sweden. 

were blue and piercing; his nose straight and not long, 
red lips and roses on his cheek even in his old age. 
His beard, in his younger years, was brown and parted, 
a hand breadth long and cut straight across; in later 
years growing at will, till it at last reached his waist, 
and became hoary like his hair. As his body was 
faultless in every respect, any dress which he wore 
became him. Fortune favored him in everything which 
he undertook; fishing, hunting, agriculture, cattle- 
breeding, mining, even to casting the dice, when he 
could be induced to take part in it, which however 
was very seldom. 

"As in his body so in his soul was Gustavus endowed 
with noble qualities. His memory was so strong that 
having seen a person once, after the lapse of ten or 
twelve years he recognized him again at first sight. 
The road he had once traveled he could never mistake 
again; he knew the names of the villages; nay even the 
names of the persons who lived there during his youth- 
ful excursions. As was his memory such was also his 
understanding. When he saw a painting, sculpture, or 
architecture, he could immediately and acutely judge 
its merits and defects, though he had never himself 
received any instruction in those arts. 

"When there was a crowd of people at the palace 
he spoke with each and on the subjects which those he 
addressed best understood. No man in the kingdom 
was so well acquainted with it as himself; none knew 
as well as he did in what its deficiencies lay. For this 
reason, and because in the beginning he was entirely 
without well informed and capable officers, he was 
obliged himself to compose every ordinance and de- 
cree which he enacted, and the kingdom was not a 
loser by it. 



The Reformation in Sweden. 139 

"Firmness and perseverance in what he undertook 
were striking features of his character. Example suf- 
ficient of this we find in his long , vehement, but honestly 
conducted, struggle with the power of Popery. Most 
others would have wearied or desired by a blow to 
decide the matter by violence. Gustavus let time and 
reflection work for him; though slowly he went ever for- 
ward. Seldom or never did he change his resolution; it 
was an adage of his which he often repeated: 'Better 
say once and remain by it than speak a hundred times.' 

" He was a stern and serious gentleman and well 
knew how to preserve his dignity. It was not advisable 
for any, whether high or low, to encroach upon it; in 
such circumstances he rebuked peasants, bishops or 
kings with equal severity. He was just but severe with 
the men whom he had placed in civil charges; on which 
account many abandoned him. When any one labored 
to show off his talents and capabilities in the hope of 
ingratiating himself or others, or commenced to extol 
such an one, the sharp-sighted king would answer: ' He 
is but a dabbler with all his pound from our Lord.' 

"Gustavus was careful of money; for he said it costs 
the sweat and labor of his subjects. His court was 
very frugal. He generally lived at one or other of the 
royal estates and consumed their produce. His chil- 
dren were kept strictly. Hams and butter were sent 
from the country for the supper of the princes in Upsala; 
the queen herself sewed their shirts, and it was con- 
sidered a great present if one of the princesses got a 
blank Ricks thaler. Gustavus's love of money seduced 
him into several injustices, which however in those 
days were not so striking as they would be now. He 
sometimes permitted parishes to remain without rec- 
tors, having them administered by vicars, and appro- 



140 The Reformation in Sweden. 

priated their returns to himself. He forbade the export 
of cattle to his subjects in general, buying them at a. 
low price from the peasants, and selling them abroad 
at a great profit. This last circumstance was one of 
the chief causes of the Dacke or peasants' revolt. 
Several things of this kind which are not creditable to 
him are related; but the people overlooked them for 
the sake of his many virtues. They knew also that 
this money was not uselessly squandered. Herr Eskills 
Hall and the other vaulted chambers of the treasury 
were full of good silver bullion at the king's death. 
When however pomp was required he did not spare, 
but showed himself the equal of other kings. The 
Lord's Anointed he said should be girded with splendor, 
that the commonalty may view him with reverence and 
not imagine themselves to be the equals of majesty to 
the small profit of the land. 

" A pure and unaffected piety dwelt in his heart 
and showed itself in his actions. Prayers were read 
morning and evening in his apartments; divine service 
he never neglected. He was better informed of the 
contents of the Bible and catechism than the most of 
the priests in his kingdom. Therefore Le Palm, his 
chief physician, wrote of him to Paris: 'My king is a 
God's prince who has scarce his equal in spiritual and 
temporal measure. He is so experienced in Scripture 
that he can rectify his priests, and none understands 
the government of the kingdom like himself.' During 
the Dacke revolt Gustavus wrote to the rebels: ' Ye can 
threaten us much as ye will; ye can drive us from our 
royal throne; rob us of estate, wife, and children; aye, 
of life itself; but from that knowledge which we have 
attained of God's Word ye shall never part us as long 
as our heart is whole and our blood warm.' 



The Reformation in Sweden. 141 

" He was equally venerable in his domestic life. 
No vice stains his memory. He liked the society of 
handsome and agreeable women; but no mistress, no 
illegitimate child, not the slightest foible, can be laid 
to his charge, though he was forty-one before he mar- 
ried for the first time. His marriage vows he kept in- 
violate. Gluttony, drunkenness, gambling, and idleness 
were what he could never endure in others, much less 
in himself. 

" As he in his younger years was of a cheerful tem- 
per, when business was done, he kept a gay and lively 
court, though in all sobriety. Every afternoon at a 
certain hour the lords and ladies assembled in the 
great hall where the king's musicians made music for 
them while they danced. 'For,' said he, 'youth 
should not be clownish but gallant to the ladies and to 
all.' They were often out together to walk or to hunt; 
once a week a school for fencing was open for the young 
nobles; tournaments were afterwards introduced, at 
which the victors received their rewards at the hands 
of the fairest of the ladies. They often entertained 
themselves with music, with song as well as playing 
on stringed instruments, the latter especially in which 
the king delighted. He made and himself played 
several instruments, of which the lute was his favorite. 
There was never an evening when he was alone that 
he did not occupy some hours with it. 

"He often traveled through the country, chiefly to 
great markets and other meetings where he addressed 
the people; sometimes instructing them in matters of 
faith; sometimes regarding their housekeeping, agri- 
culture, cattle-breeding, and so on. The peasants soon 
learned that the king's advice was good and listened 
to him willingly; also on account of his extraordinary 



142 The Reformation in Sweden. 

eloquence. His voice was strong, clear, and expressive 
in sound. No king of Sweden ever was, or deserved to. 
be, more beloved by the common people, than he was. 
Any peasants who possessed any fortune used to leave 
by will some silver to the king, so that at his death no 
inconsiderable store of bequeathed silver was found in 
the treasury; and in the unquiet years which followed 
the people ever used to speak with regret of Old 
King GUSTAF and his happy days. 

" Gustavus loved and protected learning. He was, 
however, supremely desirous of the instruction of the 
people, and sought by every means to get a sensible 
and well-informed peasantry. His own children re- 
ceived a careful education; so that they were among 
the most learned of their day. Like his children were 
the whole Wasa dynasty as far as Christina; so that 
the royal house was the first, not only in pomp and 
bravery; but likewise in science and knowledge; and 
in this last respect not only in Sweden but in all 
Europe. 

" When the king grew older and his children were 
growing up, he used often, after meals, to sit before the 
fire and, conversing with them, give them useful ex- 
hortations on many points. It was a royal school in 
its teacher, discipline, and doctrines. ' Be steady in 
your faith and united among yourselves,' said he. 'If 
you fail in the first you anger your Maker; if you neg- 
lect the second you will fall a prey to man. Make war 
by compulsion — peace without compulsion — but should 
your neighbor threaten — strike. From my very child- 
hood and ever since I have been at war: oftenest with 
my countrymen — sad to say! And I have grown gray 
in armor. Believe me, seek peace with all!' Many 
other and salutary counsels follow — but enough are 



The .Reformation in Sweden. 143 

here given to show his character and his sagacity. I 
think it will be difficult to find anywhere a nobler pic- 
ture of a true father-king; or one in which we can 
point to so few deficiencies and faults." 

A complete idea of the work of Gustavus in 

j\/7 rt m <yy a y c 

andCttstoms Sweden cannot well be conceived, without a 
°f * he Time sketch of the manners and customs of the 
time in which he lived. This also is taken 
unchanged from the same historian, Freyxell. 

" Frugality and simplicity in everyday life; pomp, 
often both tasteless and ridiculous, on solemn occa- 
sions — such were the marks of the times. Many of our 
conveniences were wanting; glass was very rare; and 
instead of the wooden shutters once in use, fine net 
work, linen, or parchment, was now taken to supply 
their place. Hearths instead of stoves were used for a 
couple of hundred of years longer. Carpets, very coarse 
for the poor, embroidered with gold and silk for the 
rich, covered the coarsely timbered walls. Thick 
benches were attached to them around the room, 
oaken in the houses of the rich. Before them stood 
long heavy tables, and small stools moved about the 
room. Plates were scarce and were never changed, if 
the dishes were never so many and so various. Every 
guest had to bring his knife, fork, and spoon with him. 
Clocks were so rare that when the Grand Duke of Mus- 
covy received one as a present from the king of Den- 
mark, he thought it must be an enchanted animal sent 
for the ruin of himself and his kingdom, wherefore he 
returned it with the utmost dispatch to Copenhagen. 
Dinner was eaten at ten, supper at five; between nine 
and ten they went to bed, to rise the earlier in the 
morning. Wearing apparel was mostly woolen; linen 
was rarely used next the skin. Holiday dresses were 



144 The Reformation in Sweden. 

costly but substantial; the same petticoat often served 
in succession mother, daughter, and grand-daughter, on. 
festal occasions. The women had their hair combed 
back and long tight-fitting gowns with stiff high ruffles. 
The men wore the Spanish dress. Their hair was in 
the beginning long and their beard shaved; but this 
was soon changed, so that the clergy alone retained 
the long hair and the smooth skin; the others adopted 
short hair and long beard. Wax lights were used only 
in churches, tallow candles by the richest and greatest, 
torches of dry wood by the people. The beds were 
broad, fastened to the wall, and few in number; the 
guests were laid several together, often with the host 
himself. This was the case even in the houses of 
princes. The roads were so bad that carriages could 
seldom be used; besides, the first coach was not intro- 
duced until the reign of John III. Most journeys took 
place on horseback, and when it rained the princes 
were wrapped in wax-cloth cloaks. High titles were 
not in use. The king was called His Grace; the princes 
Yunker Young Lord, the princesses Jroken, young 
ladies. The nobles did not use their family but their 
fathers' name. There was much of savage wildness and 
disorder yet among the people, partly on account of 
the times and the long domestic broils. Club law was 
more resorted to than the law of the land. Arms were 
in continual wear and exercise. According to an old 
custom the knights entered the bridal bed in full armor; 
but, like the knights of old, they were generally igno- 
rant in the highest degree, especially the elder among 
them. Many of King Gustavus's officers and governors 
were unable to read, still less to write; they were obliged 
to keep a clerk on purpose to read and answer the king's 
letters. The Romish faith was done away with, but 



The Reformation in Sweden. 145 

many of its superstitions remained, and that not alone 

among the people, but even the great ones of the land 

believed in witchcraft, fairies, elves, brownies, etc. 

The art of medicine consisted chiefly in prayers and 

exorcisms." 

Gustavusre- There is a singular resemblance in the per- 

peats the SO nal character of Gustavus and Charle- 

Mistake of T . . , . . ,, . - r 

Charie- magne. It is by no means certain that 11 
magne. •j-] ie former " had occupied as wide a sphere 

as the latter he would not have exhibited as great gifts 
of organization and administration. And, in the case 
of both, it seems remarkable that men so sagacious and 
experienced should have committed the fatal mistake 
of assigning the government of large principalities to 
their younger sons which rendered them in combination 
more powerful, though with less lofty titles, than the 
heir who succeeded to the throne and name of king. 
In both cases this mistaken policy was the cause of 
subsequent civil wars and convulsions, which arrested 
the kingdoms in which it was adopted in the path of 
improvement, upon which they were rapidly advancing. 
We shall find in this proceeding an explanation of the 
fact that during the reign of Eric there is scarcely any- 
thing that can be called Church History; although the 
events of that troubled era led to that Counter-Refor- 
mation which, with vague and vacillating policy, was 
introduced by king John, the successor of Eric, and 
counteracted by his successor, king Charles. In order, 
therefore, to comprehend the events for which his reign 
prepared the way, we must trace an outline of Eric's 
stormy and guilty and tragic life. I leave, for a time, 
almost entirely, Church History; and give myself to 
the narration of events which verified the saying of the 
old king, that although he had been regarded as a stern 



146 The Reformation in Sweden. 

ruler, the time would come when the children of Sweden 
would wish to tear him from his grave. But although. 
the narrative is not Church History it is that without 
which the Church History which followed could not be 
understood. 



CHAPTER VII. 

KING ERIC AND HIS BROTHERS. 

A BRIEF mention has already been made of the 
dark side of Eric's character. But that mere 
allusion furnishes a very imperfect idea of his character 
as a whole. In his boyhood he gave the promise of an 
exceptionally gifted and brilliant manhood. He inher- 
ited from his stalwart father a handsome and vigorous 
physique. As a youth he was equaled by few of his 
companions in racing, swimming, and dancing, in tour- 
naments, and in all feats of agility. " It was a pleasure," 
says his biographer, " but a fearful one, to see him ca- 
reering on horseback." 

His mental gifts, his literary accomplishments, and his 
solid learning, were quite beyond those of his companions 
of the nobility, and not often surpassed by professional 
scholars. He wrote and spoke Latin correctly and 
readily; he was skilled in astronomy and mathematics; 
and — unfortunately for his peace of mind — in astrology. 
He was, like his father, a lover and composer of music; 
and his poetry in Swedish was counted the best of his 
day. In view of his subsequent career and his crimes 
it seems singular to learn that two of his hymns and 
two of his penitential psalms are included in the Swed- 
ish Psalm book. His first tutor was Geo. Normann, who 
was sent to Sweden by Luther. He subsequently had 



148 The Reformation in Sweden. 

for his tutors two men who exercised a very deleterious 
influence upon his excitable and impressible character. 
Burraeus, a Frenchman, first put into his mind the 
ambition to marry Elizabeth of England; and Goran 
Persson was his evil genius, stimulating his suspicious 
temper, and prompting him to deeds of cruelty through- 
out all his unhappy reign. 

All the eminent gifts and advantages with which 
Eric was endowed were neutralized by his unhappy 
temperament. He was passionate, suspicious, capri- 
cious, and devoted to pleasure with a mad eagerness that 
seemed almost insanity. These high excitements were 
often followed by deep and moody melancholy. His 
suspicion and dislike was, at an early period, excited 
against his brother John by the evident, and indeed the 
inevitable, preference of Gustavus for him, as the son of 
his beloved Margaret, and one in whose purity, steadi- 
ness, and force of character he placed more confidence 
than his subsequent history showed him to have deserved. 
The partiality of Gustavus for his son John 
assigned to led him to make over to him, at the close 
the Sons of f fae successful war with Russia, the prov- 

Gustavus. . /• -•-.■ 1 1 1 • 

ince of Finland as his permanent patrimony. 
He was induced to take this step no doubt in part by 
his knowledge of the violent character of Eric, and his 
conviction that his sons would receive hard measure 
from him, if they were not placed in positions of inde- 
pendence. Finland was altogether the largest and 
most important province of the kingdom. As a treaty 
was set on foot for the marriage of John with a Polish 
princess, Eric not unnaturally suspected that his father 
was preparing to set him aside and to place his brother 
upon the throne. He therefore demanded that to him 
also a province of the kingdom should be assigned. The 



The Reformation in Sweden. 149 

king's want of confidence in him was shown by the fact 
that he demanded that he should take a solemn oath 
not to engage in any enterprise against him. That the 
king was led into this fatal policy of creating his sons 
dukes of such extensive provinces of his kingdom, as 
to leave but a mutilated and enfeebled state for the 
government of the king, through his partiality for John 
and his distrust of Eric, can scarcely be doubted. For 
when he had taken the one injudicious step of giving 
to John so large a patrimony, it was evident that he 
could withhold a similar gift from his other sons only at 
the risk of their rebellion and civil war. Moreover the 
same reason which induced him to take this step in the 
case of John operated with equal force in the case of his 
other sons. He therefore appointed Eric to be Duke 
of Calmar; Magnus to be Duke of East Gothland; and 
Charles, yet a youth, to be Duke of Suthermanland. 
But the conduct of Eric in his government of Calmar 
gave the king great uneasiness. He was surrounded 
with those selfish flatterers who always gather about 
and foster the vices of an heir to a throne with a view 
to their own subsequent advancement. They excited 
in his mind suspicions of the designs of his father and 
jealousy of his brother John. Eric set spies about his 
father, and the old king's lamentations over the irreg- 
ularities of his son, and the painful misgivings which 
he expressed as to the future of the kingdom, were 
reported and exaggerated to Eric, and led to angry 
and mutual reproaches. Indeed, so distressed was Gus- 
tavus with the unfilial conduct, and the suspicious meas- 
ures, and the extravagant and dissipated life of Eric, 
that he seriously meditated committing him to prison 
and declaring Duke John heir to the throne. But after 
much hesitation he finally, in his will, assigned the 



150 The Reformation in Sweden. 

throne to Eric, and the three provinces already men- 
tioned to his three younger sons. 

It was inevitable that such an arrangement 
between Eric as that of Gustavus's should lead to differences 
and the anc i dissensions. They were all the more 

certain to take place, that there were no 
definitions of the power of the king on the one hand, 
and the privileges of the dukes on the other. With Mag- 
nus and Charles these collisions were less likely to occur; 
because Charles was yet a minor, and not in possession 
of his dukedom; and Magnus, though violent in temper, 
was so weak in mind as to be readily controlled by Eric. 
But immediately on the death of Gustavus John wrote 
to his brother regarding the fulfillment of the provisions 
of their father's will. " It had been sufficiently known," 
he wrote, "how assiduous and industrious their departed 
father had been in gathering substance for his children; 
yet was there in his last will nothing determined, either 
in respect to the wealth he had left in cash or mov- 
ables, or his many desirable estates, which now were 
their rightful heritage, though the deceased king had 
allowed these estates to flow into the treasury of the 
realm; he hoped that all this would now turn out to 
their common advantage." 

Eric evaded a reply to these suggestions, and pre- 
pared to bring Duke John and his patrimony under his 
direct control. No sooner was Gustavus dead than 
Eric dispatched a messenger to Finland, to secure its 
pledge of allegiance to his authority. The messenger 
was secretly dispatched; but the knowledge of it was 
almost immediately conveyed to Duke John. He 
therefore immediately dispatched another messenger 
who was to ride night and day with peremptory orders 
to the governor of Abo not to allow the messenger 



The Reformation in Sweden. 151 

of Eric to fulfill his errand. The Duke was successful in 
baffling the king on this occasion; but it was not long 
before the latter accomplished his object much more 
thoroughly than he could have done by his mere per- 
sonal command. In the Diet of Arboga in 1561 the 
Estates, at the suggestion of Eric, passed a decree which 
precisely defined the rights of the king over the dukes, 
and designated the limitations of their authority. The 
dukes were compelled to submit to the conditions thus 
imposed, though they protested that many of the pro- 
visions of the act covered traps and snares of which the 
king might at any time take advantage for their de- 
struction. 

Those conditions are stated in full in PufTendorf's His- 
tory of Sweden; and they are such as placed the brothers 
in absolute subjection to the king. If either of them 
should plot against the king's government or life he 
should forfeit his right of succession to the throne. If 
any of the subjects of the principalities should offend 
the king, his officers could seize upon them and they 
should be tried by the king's courts. Neither of the 
princes should come to the court with more than one 
hundred men. They should not engage in war without 
his consent; nor coin money; nor establish bishoprics. 
These were the main provisions established by the diet; 
but there were many minor ones which must have been 
offensive to the sense of dignity and personal honor on 
the part of the princes. Their real and intended pur- 
port was to defeat the purposes for which Gustavus 
had bestowed upon them the government of the princi- 
palities. 

No less successful was Eric in his plan to deprive 
hisbrothers of a share in the possessions of their father. 
The dukes were limited to those possessions which 



152 The Reformation in Sweden. 

had been bestowed upon them by their father previous 
to his death. When the estates were to be divided 
the king declared "that his father had unjustly regarded 
the land taken back from churches and convents as 
private property. They had been given away by former 
kings; therefore when restored at the perquisition were 
to be considered as belonging to the crown and not to 
the king; for which reason the royal children could 
have no right to them by inheritance. He therefore 
appropriated these estates to himself as belonging to 
the crown." 

Thus early did the king inflame the animosity of his 
brothers by completely baffling their hopes, depriving 
them of their rights, and inflicting upon them grievous 
wrongs. 
~ .. The coronation of Eric was performed with 

Coronation r 

and Policy a splendor hitherto unknown in Sweden. He 
ofKingEnc ex p enc i ec i l ar g e sums from the great treasure 
left by Gustavus in securing from Holland a royal par- 
aphernalia equal in magnificence and expense to that 
of the greatest monarchs in Europe. Feeling that his 
supremacy and superiority as king was not a little 
diminished by the fact that the dukes, his brothers, in 
their respective governments, occupied an independent 
position, and seemed rather his rivals than his lieges, 
Eric determined to create a small body of higher 
nobility who should approach to the dukes in rank and 
honor; and thus by diminishing the relative superiority 
of the dukes to all his other subjects, would place him- 
self in a position conspicuously pre-eminent above them 
all. This new order of nobility he called counts. Only 
three members of the oldest and most famous nobility 
received this title. The object of Eric was apparent, 
and evidently intended to be so, from the method in 



The Reformation in Sweden. 153 

which this new honor was conferred. As Eric placed 
the coronets upon the heads of the new counts the 
proclamation of the herald contained these sentences': 
"Let it be known to all that there is one king in the king- 
dom of Sweden and Gothland, whom God has given us 
and whom we see before our eyes; the most high and 
puissant prince and lord, Eric XIV.; and though several 
crowns glitter before your eyes, let none take it as if 
there were more than one royal crown; for, according 
to royal custom, royal majesty has permitted each rank, 
counts and barons as well as dukes, to be honored by 
their marks of distinction. But the king of Sweden, 
of the Goths and Vandals, is one and no more." The 
meaning of all this is evident enough. The king re- 
minds the dukes that they, equally with counts and 
barons, depend upon him, notwithstanding the assign- 
ment of their patrimonies by Gustavus, for their lord- 
ships and honors. It involves the claim that they hold 
their positions by his tacit renewal of their father's gift; 
and that they are to govern their states in subordina- 
tion to him. 

The creation of this new order of nobility, 
Measures to an d other measures adopted to strengthen 
strengthen the crown, prove that if Eric had possessed 

the Crown. 

steadiness and uprightness 01 character, his 
political ability and skill would have enabled him to 
have made his reign prosperous and renowned. His 
sagacity was exhibited by the establishment of a su- 
preme court — a court of appeals from the courts of the 
several provinces; which was also a court of supreme 
original jurisdiction in every part of the kingdom. We 
have seen that when Sweden was subject to Denmark 
the effect of the non-residence of the king, and the ap- 
pointment of governors for the provinces, was to give 



154 The Reformation in Sweden. 

great power to those governors, and to break up the 
kingdom into several almost independent principalities. 
Under these circumstances a real, organic unity was 
impossible. No measure could have been better de- 
vised to give a practical unity to the kingdom, and to 
secure the centralization of authority in the crown, 
than the institution of this supreme court. 

Other salutary enactments signalize the outset of 
the reign of Eric. A regulation has prevailed in Sweden 
from the time of Gustavus to the present, that the 
farmers and residents upon the roads were to furnish 
horses and entertainment for travelers at prices fixed by 
government. This regulation bore hard upon the rural 
population and the little villages of Sweden; and one 
of the earliest regulations of Eric was that there should 
be taverns or guest houses established along the post- 
roads to relieve the people from the obligation to en- 
tertain travelers. He also abolished several fast days, 
and some superstitious ceremonies still observed in the 
celebration of the Lord's Supper. He also proclaimed 
that he threw open his kingdom to all oppressed and 
persecuted Protestants. This brought many Calvinists 
into his kingdom; and Eric himself was known to prefer 
the Reformed to the Lutheran Church. 

Eric was just about to set off for England 
various Mat. and woo Elizabeth in person when his father 
rimonial died. In 1561 he wrote to his envoy in Lon- 
don that he had again resolved to make the 
journey to England. Since his first proposals he had 
become a king and she queen of England, but the prob- 
ability of her accepting him now was less even than it 
was before. Most extravagant were the preparations 
which he made for the journey. For his own display 
on his arrival in England he had sent on a company "of 



The Reformation in Sweden. 155 

pearl broiderers, tailors and others." As a present to 
the queen he had forwarded eighteen piebald horses and 
several chests of uncoined gold and silver. He embarked 
in a fleet from Effsborg; but was compelled to put back 
by a violent storm and did not again resume the jour- 
ney. But while his envoy was prosecuting his hopeless 
suit with Elizabeth he also sent a secret agent to Scot- 
land, with an offer of his hand to Mary Queen of Scots. 
While these two suits were urged at the same time, he 
became so enraged with the Earl of Leicester, on hear- 
ing that he was the favorite lover of the queen, that 
he directed his envoy to bribe the English Council 
with money, and to secure the assassination of the 
earl. 'At the same time he makes an offer to Renata 
of Lorraine and to Christina, daughter of the Landgrave 
of Hesse. With six strings to his bow, and all of them 
golden, it seemed as if he might soon secure a bride. 
But, notwithstanding his lavish expenditure, there seems 
to have been under the elaborate courtesies with which 
his proposals were received and considered, a misgiv- 
ing and indisposition to yield consent, which may per- 
haps have arisen from rumors of his extravagant, capri- 
cious, and cruel character. 

The Mar ^^ e marr i a g e °f Duke John with a Polish 
riage of princess became the cause or the occasion 
Duke John. Q f ^at anti-reformation which was under- 
taken by him when he became king, and which was 
resisted and at length put down by his brother Charles. 
Eric had obtained a foothold in Livonia, on the south- 
ern shore of the Gulf of Finland; and as it was likely 
to be contested by Poland, he was at first reluctant to 
sanction Duke John's application for the hand of Cath- 
erine Jagellonica, sister of Sigismund, King of Poland. 
He was however at length persuaded to give his con- 



156 The Reformation in Sweden. 

sent. But the project was embarrassed and almost 
broken up by the vascillation of both the kings, Sigis- 
mund and Eric. King Sigismund insisted that as his 
sister Anna was the older she should be the bride ; but the 
duke much preferred Catherine, and Catherine was sin- 
cerely attached to the duke. King Eric after he had 
given his consent revoked it and recalled his brother. 
The duke hesitated and prepared to return, but finally 
concluded to disobey the king. The wedding was 
celebrated in secret and Duke John and his bride re- 
ceived, on their journey to Abo, ominous intimations 
of the displeasure of the king. Immediately on his 
arrival he sent to invite the king to his wedding fes- 
tivities. " But," says an historian of these events, "an- 
other feast was waiting him." 

The suspicion and enmity of Eric against 
tween King his brother John was greatly aggravated by 
E ric a l ld his marriage with the Polish princess. His 



Duke John. 



astrological studies had led him to the con- 



clusion that a light-haired man would deprive him of 
his throne; and this he thought pointed to his brother. 
His pernicious counselor Goran Persson persuaded him 
that this marriage was the seal of a compact between 
Duke John against himself; and for the establishment of 
John and Sigismund upon the throne, and the introduc- 
tion of the Roman religion into Sweden. The duke be- 
came exasperated by the evident enmity of the king; and, 
throwing aside all prudence and reserve, he denounced 
his brother at a meeting of the States of Finland, with 
a violence which could have no other result than open 
war, and which seemed to countenance the report that 
he had determined upon a struggle with his brother 
for the throne. He accused Eric of being angry be- 
cause Catherine had rejected his suit and accepted 



The Reformation in Sweden. 157 

himself. Eric he said had no right to Livonia — which 
belonged to the King of Poland. He despised the old 
and wise senators to whom his father was wont to re- 
sort for counsel, and was now under the sway of low 
and cunning adventurers, who were bringing ruin upon 
the kingdom. He had made so many enemies that 
he could neither defend his own dominions nor protect 
Finland from the threatened inroads of the Russians. 
He therefore appealed to the Fins to aid him against 
Eric; and declared that he had made a marriage with 
a sister of the king of Poland in order that by his aid 
he might help his unhappy country. This certainly 
looked like a purpose of revolt, and led to the inevi- 
table inference that John sought to supplant his 
brother upon the throne. 

Trial, Con- The king did not delay to take measures 
damnation to defeat his brother's schemes. Witnesses 
of Duke against John were everywhere sought for; 
John. anc j hjg servants were examined by torture. 

One of them, under the agony which he suffered, tes- 
tified that ''John's intention was to remove Eric from 
the throne." This was claimed to be perfectly satis- 
factory testimony. The States were summoned, the 
duke tried and condemned to death, as guilty of high 
treason. The same sentence was passed on his par- 
tisans. Those of them who could then be secured 
were beheaded. The sentence of the States was dis- 
patched to Abo by Hogenskild Bijelke, who was ac- 
companied with a considerable military force. The 
offer was made to John, in the king's name, that if he 
would surrender without resistance his life should be 
spared, though he would be kept in perpetual impris- 
onment. The duke preferred to defend himself, and 
stood a siege for two months, in the hope that he 



158 The Reformation in Sweden. 

would be relieved by Poland. After their capture the 
duke and duchess were embarked upon Eric's fleet 
and carried to Sweden. At Waxholm, Persson went 
into the vessel which conveyed the duke, and made a 
long speech to him concerning his guilt and the proofs 
upon which his condemnation was pronounced. He 
then presented himself to the duchess, and announced 
to her that she would be permitted, if she desired, to 
live at one of the king's castles, with her ladies and a 
suitable maintenance; or that if she wished to accom- 
pany the duke to prison she would be permitted to do 
so, but would be allowed to take but two of her maids 
with her. The duchess, who proved herself at this time, 
and subsequently, to be a woman of noble character, 
drew off from her finger the ring of her betrothal, and 
held it up to Persson, saying, "Read what stands there!" 
The motto of the ring was Nemo nisi mors. " I will 
abide by it," exclaimed the duchess, and she did so. 
The Duke's ^ ie ^ u ^ e was conveyed to the castle of 
Imprison- Gripsholm not far from Stockholm. More 
vient. than a hundred of his dependents and par- 

tisans were beheaded. Their bodies were exposed, 
some nailed to gibbets, and some left upon the rocks 
to be devoured by animals and birds. The old horrors 
of the days of the tyrant Christian seemed about to be 
renewed. What was to be the fate of John was yet 
undetermined. Eric had promised that his life should 
be saved if he would surrender; but the condition 
seemed to imply that it would be forfeited if he should 
resist. The king had kept himself at a distance, on the 
Danish frontier, where he was making preparations for 
war, while these frightful scenes were in progress. The 
brothers and sisters and all the relatives of the duke 
pleaded with Eric for his life, but received no hope from 



The Reformation in Sweden. 159 

his answers. And yet he had not fully made up his 
mind. On the one hand Persson advised the duke's 
death, and on the other hand it was represented to 
him that such a proceeding would make enemies of 
all his kin and awaken sympathy and indignation 
among the people. After much vascillation the king 
decided that his life should be spared, but that he 
should suffer perpetual imprisonment. He was treated 
in prison with mildness and respect. The castle in 
which they were confined had a beautiful outlook upon 
the fine bay of Gripsholm and the surrounding country; 
and the prisoners were allowed books and writing 
materials and musical instruments; and the duchess 
was allowed with an escort to walk in the gardens of 
the castle. 

The I ^ copy the account of the causes and mani- 

ity of Duke festations of the insanity of Duke Magnus 
Magnus. f r0 m the picturesque pages of the historian 
Freyxell. "When the death-warrant of Duke John 
had been made out the signature of Duke Magnus 
was necessary for its completion; and though weak 
and wavering of character it proved a most arduous 
undertaking to persuade him. Goran Persson, Bijekle 
and Beurreus traveled to and fro on this commission; 
they flattered and caressed the weak prince; Eric at 
the Diet caused the order of succession to be removed 
from John to Magnus; he appointed a rich and mag- 
nificent court for him; and flattered him with the hope 
of the lovely Mary Stuart, to whom several embassies 
were sent on this account. Thus seduced and stormed 
on every side Magnus at length gave way; but from 
that day forward he never enjoyed a happy hour. He was 
consumed by continual remorse and looked upon him- 
self as a fratricide. His mind was unequal to these 



160 The Reformation in Sweden. 

tortures and they made him at last insane. During 
this time he lived in Kongsbro in East Gothland, where 
the Motala River runs into Lake Roxen. There he often 
fancied that he saw a fair water nymph raise herself 
from the waves, and begin a song so sweet that he is 
said to have thrown himself from the lofty turret into 
the midst of the lake. He was fortunately uninjured 
and the guardians got him up again. This incident 
has given rise to a song which has been sung all over 
Sweden; its version, however, says that the water- 
nymph had frenzied Magnus by her sorcery, as a pun- 
ishment for his not choosing to dwell with her. An- 
other reason was given by the Jesuit Possevinus, who 
was in Sweden at a later period. He affirmed that 
Magnus had been struck with madness because he 
attempted to drive out the nuns from the convent 
of Wadstena. The unfortunate prince remained in 
this lamentable condition the rest of his life, or forty- 
two years more. He was buried in the Church of 
Wadstena." 

During the period of three years and more 
ministration which follow the imprisonment of John the 
of the Kmg- faults of Eric were more and more developed, 

and the condition of the kingdom became 
constantly more deplorable. His government was that 
of a suspicious and cruel tyrant who offered large re- 
wards to informers. A court, called the Royal Court, 
was established, in which the doctrine of constructive 
or inferential treason, deduced from the most trivial 
incidents and expressions, led to the condemnation 
and death of many innocent persons. A war with 
Denmark and one with Norway, carried on with alter- 
nate disaster and success during these years, but with 
no solid ultimate advantages, exhausted the resources 



The Reformation in Sweden. 161 

of the State, and led to merciless conscriptions. When 
his measures were resisted or appealed from, in any 
portion of the country, the king visited those who 
presumed to remonstrate and object with a ferocity 
of revenge which it is scarce an exaggeration to des- 
ignate as fiendish. In the few years that had elapsed 
since the death of Gustavus it seemed as if all that he 
had accomplished, with so much labor through many 
years, for the liberty and prosperity of Sweden had 
been undone; and that the unhappy country was suf- 
fering again all the evils which it experienced under 
Christian, with the aggravation that they were inflicted 
by a native king, and that king the son of the honored 
liberator and father of their country. 

But while the king's general policy was ruin- 
ment of the i n g the country and could not have been 
Noble Fam- tolerated many years, it was his insane treat- 

Hies . 

ment of the Stures and other great families 
that was the immediate occasion of the measures which 
led to his overthrow. The Stures were the most emi- 
nent and worthy and beloved of all the great houses in 
Sweden. The head of the family, bearing the old his- 
toric name of Swante Sture, associated with the heroic 
period of Sweden's struggle for emancipation from 
Denmark, was a venerable and honorable old man, 
the father of a group of sons whose character sus- 
tained the well-won reputation of the house. Nils or 
Nicholas, the eldest son, was distinguished for his 
beauty and learning and accomplishments, and greatly 
beloved for his manliness and amiability. Because of 
his high reputation, connected with the fact that he 
had light hair, so light as to be almost white, Eric con- 
ceived a hatred and dread of him which it was impossible 
for him to conceal. The prophecy of the stars was ever 



162 The Reformation in Sweden. 

haunting him. "That white head," he said, "will bring 
me mischief in the end." Nils left the court in conse- 
quence of this evident hatred and suspicion, and joined 
the army. But even there he was surrounded by spies, 
and subjected falsely to the charge of having so languidly 
conducted a military siege as to prove that he had an 
understanding with the enemy. He was recalled to 
the court and received by the king with feigned kind- 
ness; but after three days' residence in the capital he 
was arrested by Persson and proclaimed a traitor by 
heralds riding through the streets. He was then 
offered the alternative of a trial by the criminal court 
with closed doors, or of being led through the streets 
mounted on a cart-horse and with a crown of straw, to 
symbolize his alleged aspirations to the throne. He 
chose to be tried, and was condemned to death and to 
the confiscation of his property, unless the king should 
extend to him his pardon. Eric's so-called clemency 
commuted his punishment to a degrading procession. 
It was carried out with every aggravation of insult and 
humiliation which the malice of Persson could invent. 

But the effect of this cruel indignity on the army 
and the people was such as to warn the king to retrace 
his steps, if he would not himself be the instrument of 
advancing his supposed rival to the throne. Scarcely 
a week had elapsed when the king sent a messenger 
to Nils desiring him to proceed to Lotringen as em- 
bassador for the hand of the Princess Renata. He 
answered " that it was his duty to obey the king's 
command, but he thought that such a disgraced and 
dishonored man was little fitted to be a suitor in the 
king's name." Eric replied that " the procession had 
taken place by the influence of evil men, and that he 
would now become a gracious master to him." No 



The Reformation in Sweden. 163 

doubt Nils Sture was glad to escape from the kingdom; 
and he accepted the commission. He wrote to his 
parents: "I drank a draught at Stockholm which has 
crushed sense, joy, and all my welfare in this world; 
but I hope one day to be able to defend myself with 
other than letter and seal." 

An alleged Nothing certainly could have been more cal- 
Conspiracy culated to bring about a conspiracy than 
againstErk. fche i n f atu ated proceedings of the king. But 
the historians of Sweden deny that there was any 
organized conspiracy. Dissatisfaction, murmurs and 
threats of revenge were no doubt heard in the house- 
holds of Eric's victims. And those victims multiplied 
every day. He felt that the outrage upon the Stures 
never could be forgiven. He lived in constant fever 
of alarm, augmented his body-guard, and multiplied 
his spies. Reports of examinations by torture and of 
executions by night spread terror among the people. 
The most trivial and innocent acts were construed by 
his distempered fancy into evidences of a design to 
murder him. The whole force and activity of the 
government was employed and absorbed in the search 
for proofs of treason. A meeting of the States was 
called at Swartsoe where the king was then sojourning. 
The nobles who were his intended victims, unconscious 
of their coming doom, were summoned to the Diet. A 
few of those who were to be accused, who were the 
most eminent men in the kingdom, were arrested, as 
also the mother of the Stures. When Swante Sture, 
coming late to the council, heard of their arrest, he took 
the sacrament at a small church near Swartsoe, and 
prepared his mind for the worst. Upon the arrest 
of the nobles the king announced that the Diet would 
be transferred to Upsala, and its numbers increased, 



164 The Reformation in Sweden. 

in order that there might be a trial of the accused 
suited to their rank and dignity. The detestation and. 
horror with which Eric was regarded appears from the 
fact that when he reached the wharf, and proceeded to 
the castle at Upsala, he was deserted by all his ser- 
vants and arrived alone and on foot and was welcomed 
only by the archbishop, Lawrence Peterson, and the 
chancellor, Nicholas Gillenstierna. 

The Diet was held on the 19th of May, 1567. Eric 
had been drinking excessively on the preceding day 
and the speech which he had prepared could not be 
found, and had been abstracted, as is supposed, by Pers- 
son, in the hope that in the excitement of an extem- 
porary discourse, with shattered nerves, he would speak 
with more violence than he would from a carefully writ- 
ten address. They were not disappointed. In a ve- 
hement harangue he ran into invectives against Xils 
Sture, and accused him of accumulating large treasure 
with a view to a revolutionary movement. The speech 
was received with loud murmurs of dissent, which be- 
came so alarming that the Diet was adjourned. Eric 
did not again personally appear in it. But the prose- 
cution of the accused lords was pushed forward by 
Persson. 

The proofs adduced to convict the accused of a con- 
spiracy to dethrone the king were vague and scanty. 
They were inferences from expressions of indignation 
against the treatment of Nils Sture and from prophe- 
cies that the king would suffer for his cruelty. Only 
four witnesses came forward with these statements, and 
two of these, after the trial, mutually accused each other 
of having borne false witness. Never were valuable 
lives sacrificed upon such flimsy testimony. It is 3 
strong evidence of the state of feeling among the peo- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 165 

pie, that so little and such worthless testimony only 
could be procured. Tyrants can generally secure any 
needful amount of perjured testimony. But it is also 
as strong an evidence of the subservience of diets and 
legislatures in countries where all honors depend upon 
a king, that this testimony was received and admitted 
to be true and sufficient by all the states, or orders, ex- 
cept that of the clergy under the lead of their intrepid 
archbishop, Laurentius Petri. 

The Murder The events which followed would have fur- 
oftheStures. n i s hed materials for tragic scenes, in the 
hands of Shakespeare, equal in horror to those de- 
picted in Macbeth. On the 24th of May Eric pro- 
ceeded to the prison where the lords were confined 
and entering the cell first of Sten Lejonhufwud and af- 
terwards of Swante Sture he fell upon his knees be- 
fore them begging their forgiveness and promising them 
their freedom. It is impossible to know whether this 
was mere hypocritical acting or remorse, or a mixture 
of both; but the two lords were not slow to express 
their full forgiveness. Eric went so far, in his humilia- 
tion, as to request of Swante Sture his daughter's hand 
in marriage. The old lord replied that all he had be- 
longed to the king. At that moment the king was 
advised that a person desired to deliver to him a mes- 
sage; and on going without, and conversing with Peter 
Carlson, the Bishop of Calmar, he was seen to return 
with high excitement and so much rapidity that his 
guards could not keep pace with him, to the castle. 
The news had just arrived that Duke John had escaped 
from prison, and that the revolt had begun. Whether 
the conveyance of this news to the king was timed at 
this crisis by Persson in order to renew the king's hate 
and terror of the imprisoned lords cannot be known; 



i66 The Reformation in Sweden. 

but it is of a piece with all Persson's infernal manage- 
ment of the king; and the effect which Persson desired, 
was produced. The infuriated king rushed with drawn 
dagger to the castle and entered the cell of Nils Sture. 
Lejonhufwud's room was next to that of Nils Sture and 
divided by so thin a partition that all that was done or 
said in one room was heard in the other. Lejonhufwud 
(who was saved) afterwards related that shortly before 
the king's arrival Nils had sung a psalm, and had then 
thrown himself on his bed and read aloud from his 
Prayer Book. While he was thus lying, the king en- 
tered the cell with a drawn dagger in his hand, ex- 
claiming, "Art thou still here, thou traitor?" Herr 
Nils sprang from his bed, threw himself on his knees, 
and said, " Most gracious king, I am not a traitor; but 
I have faithfully served and risked my life for your ma- 
jesty ! " But the king answered him by striking him 
with his dagger through the arm. Nils drew it out, 
wiped off the blood, kissed the handle, and returned it 
to the king, saying, " Good my lord, spare me; I have 
not deserved displeasure." The king cried, " Hear how 
that villain can supplicate for himself." One of the 
king's guards, seeing what was the desire of the king, 
completed the murder by seven wounds through his 
'body. 

But no sooner was this done than Eric was seized 
with remorse or the terror which in such a heart apes 
remorse. He rushed to Swante Sture's prison and threw 
himself on his knees, and said: " Dear friend, for God's 
sake be pleased to forgive us the evil which we have 
done towards you " ! The old lord wept bitterly, and 
said: "Most gracious king, if my son has not suffered 
damage to his life, I will forgive your majesty with all 
my heart; but if his blood has been shed you must 



The Reformation in Sweden. 167 

answer to me for it before God." " Ah," said Eric leap- 
ing" up, "you will never forgive us; therefore you shall 
share their fate." Thereupon he rushed out, ordered 
the watch to have especial care of the prisoners, and 
hurried out of the castle followed only by a few of his 
guard. He was beside himself, and no longer appeared 
to know what he was doing. 

Persson and his party now felt that the murder of 
Nils Sture would convince the king that no other course 
remained but the execution of the imprisoned nobles. 
But this design was opposed by Buerreus, the old tutor 
of the king. Horrified at the bloody purpose of Pers- 
son, and hoping that he might exert some influence 
with a pupil who had continued to show him favor 
and regard, he hastened out into the country to seek 
the king. He found him wandering wildly in a field, 
and begged him to remember his royal dignity and 
return to the castle. Eric refused. Buerreus also on his 
knees implored him that he would not in haste order 
the nobles in the castle to be killed. Instead of an 
answer Eric struck at him with a sword; but Buerreus 
avoided the blow. " Lame that rogue for me," cried 
Eric to his guard. Buerreus then turned and fled for 
his life; but the same guardsman that had dispatched 
Nils Sture, Per Williamjson, sprung after him, over- 
took him, cut off a calf of his leg and dispatched him 
with his halberd. A fit fate for one of the evil advisers 
of the pupil who had now become his murderer. After 
this murder the king sent an order to the castle, whether 
or no prompted by others cannot be known, that all 
the prisoners should be executed with the exception 
of Herr Stenbock. And then escaping from his guards 
he went deeper into the woods and wildernesses, and 
no one knew what had become of him. 



1 68 The Reformation in Sweden. 

When the order for the execution came the Provost 
could not tell which Lord Stenbock — for there were two 
of that name — was intended to be excepted by the king. 
He went to consult Persson, whom he found at a gam- 
bling table, and who told him carelessly, without paus- 
ing in his game, that he must judge for himself. The 
Provost, in his doubt, saved the life of both the lords; 
but Swante St'ure, his second son Eric, his kinsmen 
Abraham Stenbock and Ivar Ivarson, were executed. 
Thus closes this chapter amid scenes of horror. A frantic 
king wandering in the woods, and four of the best and 
nighest nobles in the land lying murdered in the court 
of his castle. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

KING ERIC'S MADNESS, IMPRISONMENT AND DEATH. 
— DUKE JOHN BECOMES KING OF SWEDEN, AND 
HIS SON SIGISMUND KING OF POLAND. 

The Mad T^WO days elapsed before King Eric could 
ness of King -A. be found. He was discovered at last 
in the parish of Odensala in peasant's clothes, 
and apparently quite out of his mind. When he was 
adaressed as king he exclaimed, " Nils Sture is admin- 
istrator of Sweden"! He had not eaten or slept for 
several days and could not be persuaded to take any 
thing from the fear of poison, until his mistress, Karin 
Mansdotter, prepared and administered it with her own 
hands. When he awoke after a brief sleep he was over- 
whelmed with remorse for his crime and terror for its 
consequences. Or rather it would be more correct to 
say, in view of his subsequent position, that his terror 
put on the seeming of remorse. In the confusion which 
ensued, and the breaking up of the Diet, the government 
was administered by the council. At this time Eric 
was unable to discharge his kingly duties, and volun- 
teered abject confessions of his guilt — and a declaration 
of the innocence of the murdered lords. He also dis- 
tributed great sums of money to their relatives, and 
presents to the members of his estates. The king 
himself called this afterwards the period of his infirmity. 



170 The Reformation in Sweden. 

How far his madness was real — whether it was as- 
sumed to serve as a screen for his guilt — or how much 
method there was in his madness, if he were really 
mad, it is impossible to say. It seems certain from 
his subsequent defiant mood, in which he vindicated 
and gloried in this deed as a fine stroke of kingcraft, 
that it left no wound in his conscience. On the one 
hand, it cannot be doubted that either by a taint in his 
nature, or by giving himself constantly to violent ex- 
citement — to the indulgence of excessive passions of 
mind and body — he often acted like a madman. But, 
on the other hand, he often exhibited, as is common 
in all stages of insanity, a degree of cunning which 
seemed to prove that it was only the moral nature that 
was deranged, and that the intellect was rather sharp- 
ened than blunted by the loss of the moral sense. An 
eye-witness who belonged to his train, whose testimony 
is quoted by Geijer, says: " He would not renounce the 
government, feigning as if he had not reason until he 
could first appease the nearest kinsmen of the deceased 
lords." 
T ., .. The story of Duke John's escape from prison 

Liberation J J r sr 

of Duke had no foundation. It was no doubt invented 
John. ^ counteract the king's sudden access of re- 

morse in which he promised to liberate the Stures and 
besought their forgiveness. But the friends of John 
now availed themselves of his real or affected mood of 
penitence to urge his liberation. Eric was readily in- 
duced to give his consent. The duke promised the 
faithful allegiance of a subject to his king and pledged 
himself to recognize the sons of Karin Mansdotter, the 
mistress whom the king was now about to marry, as the 
heirs to the throne. The 8th of October was appointed 
for the meeting of the brothers. John, with his wife and 



The Reformation in Sweden. 171 

family, came by water to Swartsjo; and Eric and his 
suite met them in the gateway. Eric threw himself 
on his knees before John calling him his lord and sov- 
ereign. John also knelt, replying that Eric was king; 
but himself a poor prisoner who implored his royal 
mercy. They continued thus upon their knees op- 
posite to each other until their stepmother, Katrina 
Stenlvock, came up and begged them to rise and not 
make themselves ridiculous in the eyes of all present. 
The brothers obeyed and proceeded together to the 
castle. But there was awkwardness and constraint in 
their bearing towards each other. Eric especially 
seemed anxious and melancholy and maudlin, re- 
peatedly imploring the duchess and his little nephew 
Sigismund to forgive him for their imprisonment, and 
in so doing he again fell upon his knees. The duchess 
raised him and sought by words and caresses to calm 
him — but quite in vain. He left the room in a state 
of high excitement. John wisely feared lest this real 
or feigned remorse might pass again into real or feigned 
fury, and thought it advisable to retire soon to Went- 
holm. The reconciliation was completed by correspon- 
dence, and in it Eric offered to resign the government 
to John. After this John resided chiefly at Arboga and 
Eric at Stockholm; and thus ended the year 1567. In 
his diary the king had written over this date these 
words: "The most unfortunate year for King Eric." But 
he was destined to pass many other years still more 
unfortunate. 

Recoveroand ^ ox some ^ im ^ after this reconciliation with 
proceedings Duke John the mind of Eric exhibited fre- 
0} mg nc. q uent confusion — feigned or real. He some- 
times wrote and spoke as if he considered John as king 
and himself as a prisoner. But gradually he reached 



172 The Reformation in Sweden. 

the mental position he had occupied previous to his sup- 
posed discovery of the conspiracy of the Stures. He now 
announced his purpose to marry Karin Mansdotter, and 
to have her crowned, as she subsequently was, queen of 
Sweden. The war with Denmark having been prose- 
cuted languidly, and to the great loss of the reputation 
of the Swedish armies, Eric determined to carry it on in 
person. The method he pursued show T ed the essential 
frivolity of his character, and his love of extravagance 
and display. He was extremely devoted to all warlike 
ceremonialism and was as rigid and thorough a martinet 
in discipline and drill, as he was incompetent as a leader. 
His mind was absorbed at this time in getting from the 
capital a large supply of red-colored goose feathers, 
and squirrel and fox tails, for the new uniforms which 
he devised, as well as wines and spices and raisins and 
all the luxuries of his life in the palace of Stockholm. 
But with characteristic caprice he soon returned to 
the capital and celebrated his marriage with Karin 
Mansdotter with great splendor. But so distasteful 
was this proceeding to his subjects, that those who 
were selected to be knighted on that occasion could with 
difficulty be persuaded to accept the doubtful honor. 
Persson, on whom the sentence of death had been pro- 
nounced in the Council Chamber of Stockholm, when 
the king was in his mood of penitence, and to whom 
had been brought home the charge of having directly 
intervened for the execution of more than a hundred 
and twenty citizens and nobles, but whom the king had 
forgiven and restored to power, resumed his old influ- 
ence, and was still the evil genius of the king and the 
horror and bane of the kingdom. He persuaded the 
king to demand from those on whom, in his hour of 
madness, he had lavished excessive gifts, that they 



The Reformation in Sweden. 173 

should be returned. At the same time he put forth a 
proclamation in reference to the aberration of his mind 
and his proceedings under its influence in the preced- 
ing year, in which he made his servants responsible for 
the crimes which he had himself urged on against the 
remonstrances of at least one of his most honored coun- 
selors, Buerreus, who suffered the penalty of his rash 
advice by the brutal murder to which he was subjected 
by the order of the king. He alleged that in fear of 
an outbreak of revolt he had put to death Nicholas 
Sture, who was rightly condemned for his proved trea- 
son; but his servants on that occasion, against his own 
will, had cut off the innocent as well as the guilty. He 
himself had fled to the wilds (and this aberration is 
represented as if it were the consequence of the guilt 
of his servants and not of his own), deserted by all, 
reckoning himself at last a deposed captive, and de- 
spairing in this condition, not only of his throne, but 
even of his eternal salvation. Meantime the govern- 
ment had been neglected and the kingdom ruined; but 
now God had restored him to his health and faculties, 
and the exercise of regal authority; and he therefore 
ordained an universal thanksgiving over the whole of 
Sweden. He had the effrontery to exhort the nobles 
to set to the people the example of an honorable and 
useful life; for, said this human devil turned preacher, 
" Ye were not raised to the class of nobles in intent 
and act merely that ye should lead merry days and do 
no good in return to the realm of Sweden." 

Eventswhich The fatal events of tne previous year, and 
led to a Re- the marriage of the king to a mistress of the 
class of peasants, could not fail to produce 
profound discontent throughout the kingdom. But 
other events occurred and were made known, which 



174 The Reformation in Sweden. 

rendered it quite impossible that so depraved and vile 
a monarch could long remain upon the throne in a 
nation that retained the least of that spirit of independ- 
ence and self-assertion which had been exhibited even 
in exaggerated forms in the earlier portion of the reign 
of the great Gustavus. 

I. Ivan the Terrible of Russia. It was certainly a 
most disastrous circumstance for nothern and eastern 
Europe that two such monarchs as Eric and Ivan the 
Terrible of Russia should have reigned contemporane- 
ously. There was no little resemblance between these 
two crowned monsters. They were both subject to 
fits of frenzy. Those of Ivan were more awful in their 
results than those of Eric, because they were longer in 
their duration, and because his power was more abso- 
lute and the reach of his tyranny more extensive, and 
because his wildest and most cruel decrees were implicitly 
carried into execution. It is not essential to the events 
which I am about to describe, in which Ivan and Eric 
were concerned, that I should present this companion 
picture of another mad tyrant, whose atrocities seem 
colossal by the side of those of the king of Sweden; but 
the description will better enable us to realize the hor- 
rors of that wild time, and to appreciate the guilt of 
Eric in entering into a nefarious compact with one whose 
frantic crimes it would seem might have appalled even 
him. I quote from Kelly's Compendium of Karamsin, 
a native Russian author. 

"In his first fit of rage several great boyars of the 
family of Ruric (the old royal line) were put to death 
by beheading, poisoning, or impaling; their wives and 
children were driven naked into the forests, where they 
expired under the scourge. In a second paroxysm he 
marched as a conqueror against the subjugated Novo- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 175 

gorod; and imagining that he imitated or perhaps sur- 
passed the victory of his grandfather, he butchered 
with his own hand a throng of the unfortunate inhabi- 
tants whom he had heaped together in a vast inclosure, 
and when at last his strength failed to second his fury, 
he gave up the remainder to his select guards, to his 
slaves, to his dogs, and to the opened ice of the Bolkof 
in which, for more than a month, these hapless beings 
were daily ingulfed by hundreds. Then declaring 
that his justice was satisfied he retired; seriously re- 
commending him to the prayers of the survivors; who 
took especial care not to neglect the orders of their 
terrestrial deity. 

" Tver and Pskof also experienced his presence; Mos- 
cow at length saw him again and on the same day the 
public square was covered with red-hot brasiers, enor- 
mous cauldrons of brass, and eighty gibbets. Five 
hundred of the most illustrious nobles, already torn by 
tortures, were dragged thither; some were massacred 
amid the joyful acclamations of his savage satellites; 
but the major part expired under the protracted agony 
of being slashed with knives by the courtiers of the 
Muscovite monster. 

" Nor were women spared any more than men; Ivan 
ordered them to be hanged at their own doors; and he 
prohibited their husbands from going out and in with- 
out passing under the corpses of their companions till 
they rotted and dropped to pieces on them. Elsewhere 
husbands or children were fastened dead at the places 
which they had occupied at the domestic table, and 
their wives or mothers were compelled to sit opposite 
to their dear and lifeless remains. 

"To the dogs and bears which this raging madman 
delighted to let loose upon the people, was left the 



176 The Reformation in Sweden. 

task of clearing the public square from the mutilated 
bodies which encumbered it. According to the annals 
of Pskof there were 60,000 victims at Novogorod alone. 
Every day Ivan invented new modes of punishment 
which his tyrrany, jaded by so many excesses, still 
looked upon as insufficient. Very soon he required 
fratricides and parricides! Basmanof was compelled 
to kill his father; Prozoroosky his brother. The mon- 
ster next drowned eight hundred women; and rummag- 
ing with atrocious cupidity the abodes of his victims he, 
by dint of shocking tortures, compelled the remaining 
relations to point out the places in which their wealth 
was hidden. These confiscations, joined to monopo- 
lies, taxes and conquests, accumulated in his palace 
the riches of the empire and the Tartars. 

"Setting himself above all laws this lustful being mar- 
ried seven wives. Even his daughter-in-law was forced 
to fly from his death-bed, terrified by his lascivious- 
ness. He was eager to procure an eighth wife from the 
court of his friend Elizabeth of England; and the daugh- 
ter of the earl of Huntington was offered to the inspec- 
tion of the Russian embassador, at her own desire and 
the queen's. The daughter of Henry VIII. was not 
shocked to hear, at the same time, of the czar's wish to 
be married, and of the birth of a prince born to him by 
his seventh living wife; but before the English match 
was concluded Mary Hastings took fright, and begged 
Elizabeth to spare her the perilous honor. To com- 
plete Ivan's usurpation he assumed the manner of one 
who was inspired; and by all those external signs which 
our bounded imagination attribute to the Divinity, he 
made himself God in the minds of his people. All that 
came from his hands, blows, wounds, even the most 
degrading treatment, was received with resignation, 



The Reformation in Sweden. 177 

nay adoration. In the blind and servile submission of 
the Russian people God and czar were identified; their 
proverbial sayings bear witness to this. This was 
the national formula of speech in reference to anything 
future: 'If God and the czar wills it.' If there is in 
history the record of a more horrible royal monster, 
and of one who exercised such atrocious and wanton 
and widespread cruelty and desolation among his own 
subjects, I know not where to find it." 

2. Relation of Eric to Ivan. When the proposal 
of Duke John for the hand of the Polish princess, 
Catherine, was made, it was found that Ivan was also 
her suitor. But the czar and Sigismund not being 
able to agree upon the terms of the marriage con- 
tract, the suit of the czar was rejected. The Poles, 
who had been at war with the Russians for hundreds 
of years, intensely hated them; and to show their con- 
tempt for Ivan sent him instead of Catherine a female 
figure, a large doll, in a splendid wedding dress. The 
czar was furious, and invaded and cruelly ravaged Po- 
land. But this did not satisfy him. He was deter- 
mined to get possession of Catherine, notwithstanding 
her marriage to Duke John. 

When King Eric was married to Karin Mansdotter, 
John and his brothers returned thanks for the invitation 
to the wedding; but did not dare to go. Duke John 
had learned that Eric had secretly promised in 1556 to 
deliver his wife into the hands of Ivan, on condition 
that the czar would desist from his claims on Eastland 
and assist him against the Poles. It is a striking evi- 
dence of the degradation to which the tyrrany of Eric 
had brought his subservient officials that the eminent 
chancellor Nicholas Gillenstierna, in February, 1567, 
actually subscribed at Moscow a convention by which 



178 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Eric engaged to give up his sister-in-law to the czar 
on the conditions named above. After John and his 
wife were liberated it was no longer in Eric's power to 
fulfill this promise. But a Russian embassy to Stock- 
holm demanded its fulfillment, and a letter from Eric to 
Ivan, in April, 1568, shows that the negotiations were 
not yet ended. These facts coming to the knowledge 
of John seemed to absolve him from all further loyalty 
to his brother. The marriage of Eric and the growing 
weariness and detestation of the people for his cruel 
and capricious rule gave the opportunity, and the last 
contemplated outrage upon himself and wife furnished 
the motive and vindication of his rebellion. 
Rebellion of Only four days after Eric's wedding he learned 
the Dukes. of the revolt of the brothers, John and Charles. 
They took possession of Wadstena on the Lake Wetter, 
a central and populous part of the country; and were 
soon joined by many adherents. The brothers met for 
their first conference on this matter under an oak in 
Wormland; and when the)* gathered their followers at 
Wadstena, oak-leaves in their hats and caps were 
adopted to commemorate the event, and to designate 
their party. The proclamation which they issued must 
have been convincing and acceptable to the realm. The 
principal charges made against Eric were — " that he 
had often violated his faith to God and man; that he had 
kept his brother Duke John, with his wife and children, 
five years in prison, without having been convicted of 
any crime; that he had murdered several innocent lords 
at Upsala; that he had designed to assassinate several 
others, together with his two brothers, at his marriage; 
that to the great scandal of the royal family, he had 
made his concubine, a person of peasant origin, queen 
of Sweden. To this thev added that he would have 



The Reformation in Sweden. 179 

given up the Duke John's wife to Ivan of Russia; that 
contrary to his pledges he had restored the infamous 
Persson to place, and his old influence; and, in fine, that 
he had committed many vile and infamous actions un- 
worthy the majesty of a king " (Puffendorf, 246). I pass 
over the rapid successive steps which ended in the cap- 
ture of Eric in the early part of 1569. Brought to trial 
he conducted his own defense. When at one point 
Duke John interrupted him with the exclamation that 
he was out of his senses, he answered: " Once only was 
I out of my senses — when I let thee slip from prison." 
His condemnation and imprisonment were foregone 
conclusions. His harsh treatment was not honorable to 
John, whose imprisonment had been made so light by 
Eric. Several unsuccessful plots for his release were 
made. These were so numerous and alarming that 
Duke John gave directions that in certain emergencies 
he should be poisoned. This took place the 25th of 
February, 1577, in the forty-ninth year of his age, and 
the ninth of his imprisonment. It was the fit end of an 
awful life. 

Very little that can properly be called Church 
Hgion dur- History is to be found during the wild and 
ing this troubled reign of Eric. When he was, as he 

supposed, about to proceed to England for 
the hand of Queen Elizabeth, he put forth a decree to 
abolish some of the ceremonies of the Lutheran Church, 
and to bring it into nearer conformity to the doctrine 
and discipline of the Reformed. This was done under 
the influence of his former tutor, Buerreus, a Frenchman, 
and under the impression probably that such a pro- 
ceeding would commend him and the proposed match 
to the favorable regard of Elizabeth. But the arch- 
bishop and the people were too devoted to the Lutheran 



180 The Reformation in Sweden. 

system to be at all influenced by this decree. It re- 
mained wholly inoperative. 

At the same time a Nuncio from the Pope, John 
Francis, came to Sweden in order to bring back the 
king and the country to the Papal obedience. The 
name of the Nuncio suggests his probable English or- 
igin and the connection of the embassy with the design 
of securing the return of Queen Elizabeth to the Papal 
obedience, and of influencing her in that direction by 
gaining over Eric, who it was generally believed was 
an accepted suitor of the queen. That this secret 
Nuncio labored to pave the way for that Catholic 
reaction which was subsequently attempted by King 
John is a matter of course. But the kingdom had been 
brought by Gustavus into such a firm hold upon Lu- 
theranism, consecrated in the memory of the people 
by all the glorious struggles and triumphs of his now 
lamented reign, that neither the Reformed nor the 
Roman Church could make any progress in the way of 
winning proselytes. 

Duk* John ^^ e two dukes had labored in concert for 
proclaimed the overthrow of Eric. During the progress 
ing ' of the revolt, an equal homage and acknowl- 

edgment of obedience, on the part of the people, was 
rendered to both brothers. It was at first arranged 
that they were to reign together. There is evidence 
that such was originally declared to be the arrange- 
ment agreed upon by the brothers, and assented to by 
their partisans. Puffendorf declares that it was con- 
firmed by an oath on the part of John; and that the first 
money that was coined bore the names and effigies of 
both the princes. But this arrangement was manifestly 
impracticable. Yet it was well for the success of 
their enterprise that such should be, or should be be- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 181 

lieved to be, the design, in order that there might be 
unity of counsel and of action. When the brothers 
succeeded in their enterprise the seniority of John 
and his government of Stockholm were immediately 
and treacherously taken advantage of by him to se- 
cure the acknowledgment of him as king. The Coun- 
cil accepted him as such on his arrival, and the 
Estates confirmed the recognition. Charles did not 
disguise his dissatisfaction, and could not, or did 
not drop the tone of an equal in all his transac- 
tions with his brother. Endowed with far more force 
of mind and power of will than John, he did not fail to 
exercise a controlling voice in the government, and 
to dominate over his less gifted and energetic brother. 
He was the only one of the sons of Gustavus who in- 
herited his father's great intellectual and administrative 
capacity, his decision of character, and his thoroughly 
conscientious and pronounced Protestantism. But 
while in these respects he resembled his father, he was 
wanting in that geniality and friendliness, and charm 
of manner and adaptation to all classes which won for 
Gustavus such enthusiastic affection and regard. But 
while Charles represented his father in his higher char- 
acteristics, his weaker brother represented him in his 
more popular traits; and was thus enabled to hold his 
place upon the throne notwithstanding proceedings 
on his part which were repugnant to the national 
will and conscience. 
. . . The first care of King John was to strengthen 

Privileges 

bestowed up- himself by renewing the old privileges of the 
on the No- nobility and bestowing - upon them new im- 

bihty. . . i 

munities. He reversed the attainder pro- 
nounced upon the great families whose chiefs were 
destroyed by Eric. He restored to the nobles the 



1 82 The Reformation in Sweden. 

right of collecting the taxes due from their dependents 
to the king. The supreme court established by Eric, 
whose effect was to centralize the powers of the king- 
dom in the government at Stockholm, and to limit 
the independence of the lords, was abolished. Ac- 
cused nobles were not to be incarcerated until after 
conviction. The policy of Gustavus was to increase 
the powers and resources of the nobility in order that, 
bound to the king by benefits received and hoped for, 
they might add both strength and eclat to the throne. 
The effect of the policy of John, which it cost King 
Charles many efforts and long years to undo, was to 
add to the prerogatives of the nobles; and at the 
same time to weaken the ties which bound them to 
the throne. 

Sizismund ^ le Section of Sigismund, son of King John, 
elected King to the throne of Poland is the event which, 
°* ° an ' fostered by the vascillating policy and the 
uncertain position of his father, led to the counter- 
Reformation. It will be necessary to refer to some of 
the circumstances which preceded this event. 

I. The Condition of Poland. Poland was unlike, in 
many respects, any other kingdom in Europe. Its 
development was not, like that of Germany and France, 
from a feudal system, in which a limited number of great 
lords towered high above all the other classes of the pop- 
ulation. During the Jagallon dynasty, 1384 to 1572, 
which reigned nearly two centuries, the throne had been 
hereditary, but its power had been extreme!}- limited 
by their diets. These diets were in theory, and at first 
largely in fact, composed of the army, which consisted 
of only those called nobles. There were but two classes 
of the Polish population, the nobles who composed the 
army, and the serfs and agricultural laborers. The 



The Reformation in Sweden. 183 

trading and mechanic classes consisted chiefly of Jews, 
and the professions were filled by Germans. Of these 
nobles some few were large proprietors; but the greater 
number were poor, and could not break through the 
traditions which their nobility imposed upon them, and 
enter, in the intervals of warfare, into lucrative profes- 
sions. It was a state of society, a form of polity, quite 
unique — one which of necessity led to many wars, and 
was not calculated to promote domestic quiet. 

2. The Diets. Up to the beginning of the fifteenth 
century the diets had been general assemblies of all the 
nobles; — that is, in fact, of the army. But the growing 
inconvenience of holding meetings of more than 100,000 
horsemen on an open plain, and of securing intelligible 
and well considered laws and regulations from such an 
assembly, obliged the Poles at length to adopt a system 
of representation. Minor diets or colloquia had long 
been held by each of the Palatines in their palatinates 
for the administration of justice, and these now began 
to appoint deputies to the national diet. In the course 
of time each of these districts adopted this system; 
and about 1468 the custom had become nearly universal 
of sending from each palatinate two deputies to the 
general diet. The development of this system was 
very gradual, and it was never universally adopted. 
Some of the old nobles, tenacious of their traditional 
rights, refused to transfer them to a deputy. The dep- 
uties were bound to act precisely according to the 
directions of their constituents. At this period also 
the towns secured the elective franchise; and were per- 
mitted to send deputies to the diet of the palatinate, 
and all of them in combination, within one of these 
districts, could also send their two deputies to the 
general diet. It was a singular system. An heredi- 



1 84 The Reformation in Sweden. 

tary monarchy of very limited powers, controlled by an 
army calling itself a nobility, which was at the same 
time the only national legislature; and at this period 
both the king and nobility, for the maintenance or 
increase of their prerogatives, seeking the aid of the new 
power, the representatives of the towns and cities. The 
only prerogative which gave power and dignity to the 
crown was that of appointment to all offices in the 
kingdom. 

3. Literary Culture of the Nobility. Though a 
large portion of the nobility were poor, they were, as 
a class, unusually cultivated and learned. Their en- 
forced exclusion from all professions, except that of 
war, drove large numbers of them into the pursuit and 
enjoyment of learning. The Latin language was very 
generally understood, and, as spoken and written, was 
almost as widely used among the better classes of 
Germans and Jews, as well as among the Poles, as the 
vernacular. When, after the death of the last king of 
the hereditary dynasty of Jagallon, 1572, the mon- 
archy became elective, Henry, Duke of Anjou, son 
of Catherine de Medici, and brother of Charles IX., 
was elected king. An embassy was sent to Paris to 
announce the decision; and the description given 
of this Polish deputation, by an eye witness of its 
reception, confirms the statement which I have made 
of the relative superiority in culture of the Poles, at 
this period, to persons of the same class in other coun- 
tries. The account is taken from the great French 
historian, De Thou. 

" It is impossible to express the general astonish- 
ment when we saw these embassadors in long robes, 
fur caps, sabres, arrows and quivers; but our admira- 
tion was excessive when we saw the sumptuousness 



The Reformation in Sweden. 185 

of their equipages, the scabbards of their swords 
adorned with jewels, their bridles, saddles, and horse 
cloths decked in the same way, and the air of conse- 
quence and dignity by which they were distinguished. 
One of the most remarkable circumstances was their 
facility in expressing themselves in Latin, French, 
German, and Italian. These four languages were as 
familiar to them as their vernacular tongue. There 
were only two men in court who could answer them 
in Latin, the Baron of Millau and the Marquis of 
Castlenau. They had been commissioned expressly 
to support the honor of the French nation; but they 
had reason to blush at their comparative ignorance 
in this point. The embassadors spoke our language 
with so much purity, that one would have taken them 
rather for men educated upon the banks of the Seine, 
than for the inhabitants of the countries which were 
watered by the Vistula and the Dnieper, which put 
our courtiers to the blush, who knew nothing, but 
were open enemies of all science; so that when their 
guests questioned them they answered only with signs 
or blushes." 

4. Religious Toleration in Poland. It is another 
remarkable characteristic of the condition of Poland 
that under the Jagallon dynasty, while Catholicism 
was the religion of the state, a free toleration to all 
other systems was allowed. It is a striking spectacle 
in the midst of the stormy and intolerant sixteenth 
century, when the Papacy and the Reformation every- 
where else studied to exclude each other: — that of 
full and free toleration and kindly feeling, among all 
churches and all forms of faith. I quote a description 
of this state of things from Fletcher's " History of 
Poland." 



1 86 The Reformation in Sweden. 

"There were perhaps more printing-presses at this 
time — i. e., in the sixteenth century — in Poland than 
there have ever been since, or than there were in 
any other country of Europe at the time. There 
were eighty-three towns where they printed books; 
and in Cracow alone there were fifty presses. The 
chief circumstances which supported so many printing- 
houses in Poland at this time was the liberty of the 
press; which allowed the publication of the writings 
of all the contending sects, which were not permitted 
to be printed elsewhere. 

" Nor were the Poles less advanced in that most 
enlightened feeling of civilization, — religious tolera- 
tion. When almost all the rest of Europe was del- 
uged with the blood of contending sectaries; while 
the Lutherans were perishing in Germany; while the 
blood of a hundred thousand Protestants, the victims 
of the war of persecution, and the horrid massacre of 
St. Bartholomew, was crying from the ground of France 
against the infamous Triumvirate and the hypocritical 
Catherine de Medici; while Mary made England a fiery 
ordeal of persecution; and even the heart of the virgin 
queen was not entirely cleansed of the foul stuff of 
bigotry, but dictated the burning of the Arians — Po- 
land opened an asylum for all religions and allowed 
every man to worship God in his own way. 'Mosques,' 
says Rulhiere, ' were raised among churches and syna- 
gogues. Leopol has always been the seat of three 
bishops, Greek, Armenian and Latin; and it was never 
inquired which of the three cathedrals any man who 
consented to submit to the regulations of government 
went to receive the communion. Lastly, when the 
Reformation was rending so many states into inimi- 
cal factions, Poland, without proscribing her ancient 



The Reformation in Sweden. 187 

religion, received into her bosom the two new sects. 3 
All parties were allowed a perfect liberty of the 
press. The Catholics printed their books at Cracow, 
Posen, Lubin, etc., while the followers of the Confes- 
sion of Augsburg published theirs in Paniowicka, 
Dombrow, etc.; the Reformers at Pinczow, Brzese, 
Neiswiez; the Arians in Racow and Baslaw; and the 
Greek sectarians in Lithuania, at Ostrow and Wilna." 

Such was the state of the kingdom when Sigismund 
II., the last of the kings of the house of Jagallon, died 
in 1572. 

5. Catholic Reaction in Poland. On the death of 
Sigismund II., and the extinction of the Jagallon 
dynasty, Poland seemed about to be delivered up 
to' hopeless anarchy. The crown was formally made 
over to his subjects by the dying king. Poland be- 
came henceforward an elective monarchy. After a 
decorous interval, in which the kingdom was adminis- 
tered by the council of state, the archbishop, Gnesne, 
convoked a diet for considering the steps proper to 
be taken for the election of a new king. The partisans 
and lovers of the old method of assembling all the 
nobles at the national diets prevailed in securing the 
decision that all the nobles should have a voice in 
the election of the king. It was resolved that all the 
nobles of the kingdom should meet in a large plain 
near Warsaw. Such a spectacle was never elsewhere 
seen — thousands of nobles on horseback, in military 
costume, assembled to elect a king. In this so-called 
diet the coronation oath, or pacta co7tventa, was re- 
vised. Its provisions remained unaltered until the 
dismemberment of Poland by Prussia and Russia. It 
stripped the monarch of all power except that of ex- 
ecuting the laws framed by the diet, with the single, 



188 The Reformation in Sweden. 

but important, exception of appointments to all the 
offices in the kingdom. It made the crown elective 
and provided for the regular convocation of the diet 
every two years. It bound the king and the kingdom 
to perfect toleration of all religions. The Roman 
Catholic however remained the state religion, and the 
kings were bound to be of that profession of faith. 

The nobles accordingly assembled on the plain 
near Warsaw; and most picturesque and brilliant, and 
certainly unique, was the scene and the proceedings. 
Several candidates were nominated, among whom 
were King John of Sweden; Ernest, son of the em- 
peror Maximilian of Austria; and Henry, Duke of 
Anjou, son of Catherine de Medici and brother of 
Charles IX., then king of France. The latter was 
elected; that is, he was accepted, not by a counted 
and ascertained majority, but by a louder acclaim and 
clash of arms than greeted the announcement of any 
other name. No sooner however had he reluctantly 
reached Poland, than he was informed of the death 
of Charles, which left him the rightful heir of the 
throne of France. Knowing that the Poles would 
not allow him to violate the oath which bound him 
to reside in Poland, he resolved to leave, and did 
leave, the kingdom by stealth. He was overtaken a 
few leagues from Cracow by a Polish nobleman, but 
resolutely refused to return. 

The next person elected was Stephen Batory, Duke 
of Transylvania, the husband of Anne, the sister of the 
late king Sigismund. He was a prince of rare virtues 
and eminent talent. In his wars with Russia he gained 
great renown, no less for his signal victories, than for 
the contrast of his just and elevated spirit with the 
barbarous and vindictive character of his Russian foes. 



The Reformation in Sweden. 189 

It was under this wise and just king that the Ro- 
manists acquired a great increase of influence and 
power. They did not succeed in changing the laws 
which enforced toleration, but they put themselves, 
through the mistaken policy of the king, at the 
sources of religious influence, which greatly extended 
the power of the Papacy and threatened to bring the 
kingdom again into absolute obedience to the Pope. 
The peace between Poland and Russia was brought 
about through the agency of Possevin, the Jesuit, and 
Legate of the Pope. This led to the introduction of 
the Jesuits into Poland. That order was of high repu- 
tation for its learning; and the king, ignorant of their 
history and principles, imagined that he was promot- 
ing the welfare of his kingdom when he intrusted to 
them the care of the University of Wilna, which he 
had just founded. But there, as everywhere in Europe, 
they soon showed themselves in a different character 
from that of peaceful teachers, which it was their 
policy, when they wished to get possession of a king- 
dom, to assume. 

The successive steps by which this influence was 
acquired are stated by Ranke with his usual clearness: 

" An opinion has been expressed that the Protes- 
tants, who for a time certainly had as we have seen 
the decided supremacy in Poland, would also have been 
in a condition to raise a king of their own faith to the 
throne, but that even they themselves came at length 
to consider a Catholic more advantageous, because in 
the person of the Pope he had still a higher power and 
judge placed over him. 

"If this were so they brought a very heavy punish- 
ment upon themselves for a decision so adverse to 
Protestantism. 



190 The Reformation in Sweden. 

" For it was precisely by the agency of a Catholic 
king that the Pope was able to make war on them-. 
" Of all the foreign embassadors to Poland the Papal 
Nuncios alone possessed the right of demanding audi- 
ence of the king without the presence of a senator. 
We know what these men were. They had prudence 
and address enough to cultivate and profit by the con- 
fidential intercourse thus placed within their reach. 

" In the beginning of the eightieth year of the six- 
teenth century Cardinal Bolognetto was the Nuncio in 
Poland. He complained of the severity of the climate; 
of the cold to which as an Italian he was doubly sus- 
ceptible; of the close, suffocating air in the small heated 
rooms; and of the whole mode of life which was utterly 
uncongenial to his habits and predilections. He nev- 
ertheless accompanied King Stephen from Warsaw to 
Cracow, from Wilna to Lubin — throughout the king- 
dom in short; at times in rather a melancholy mood, 
but none the less indefatigable. During the campaign 
he kept up his intercourse with the king at least by 
letter and maintained an uninterrupted connection be- 
tween the interests of Rome and the royal personage. 

" We have a circumstantial relation of his official 
proceedings and from this we learn the character of 
his undertakings and how far he prospered in them. 

" Above all things he exhorted the king to appoint 
only Catholics to government offices; to permit no 
other worship than that of the Catholic Church in 
the royal towns; and to re-establish the tithes — « 
measures which were adopted about the same time 
in other countries and which promoted or indicated 
the renovation of Catholicism. 

" But the Nuncio was not wholly successful in the 
first instance. King Stephen thought he could not go 



The Reformation in Sweden. 191 

so far; he declared that he was not sufficiently power- 
ful to venture it. Yet this prince was not only imbued 
with Catholic convictions he had besides an innate 
zeal for the interests of the Church, and in many par- 
ticulars his decisions were regulated by the represen- 
tations of the Nuncio. 

"It was under the immediate patronage of royalty 
that the Jesuit colleges in Cracow, Gradno, and 
Puttusk were established. The new calendar was 
introduced without difficulty and the ordinances of 
the Council of Trent were for the most part carried 
into full effect. But the most important circum- 
stance was the king's determination that the bishop- 
rics should for the future be bestowed on Catholics 
only. Protestants had previously made their way even 
to these ecclesiastical dignities; but the Nuncio was 
now authorized to summon them before his tribunal 
and to depose them; a fact of all the more importance 
inasmuch as that a seat and vote in the senate were 
attached to the episcopal office. It was this political 
efficacy of the spiritual institutions that the Nuncio 
most especially sought to turn to account. Above all 
he exhorted the bishops to be unanimous as regarded 
the measures to be adopted at the Diet, and these 
measures were prescribed by himself. With the most 
powerful of the Polish ecclesiastics, the Archbishop 
Gnesne, the Archbishop of Cracow, Bolognetto had 
formed a close personal intimacy which was of infinite 
utility for the promotion of his views. Thus he suc- 
ceeded not only in awakening new zeal among the 
clergy, but also in at once obtaining extensive influ- 
ence over temporal affairs. The English were making 
proposals for a commercial treaty with Poland which 
promised to be very advantageous, more particularly 



192 The Reformation in Sweden. 

for Dantzic. It was by the Nuncio alone that this 
purpose was defeated, and principally because the 
English required a distinct promise that they should 
be allowed to trade and live in peace without being 
persecuted on account of their religion. 

" These things suffice to show that, however moder- 
ate King Stephen might be, it was yet under him that 
Catholicism acquired an essential reinstation in Poland." 

It was under these circumstances that Sigismund 
III., son of King John of Sweden, was elected King of 
Poland. His mother, Catherine Jagellonica, had borne 
him in prison, and so carefully trained him in the 
Catholic faith* that he remained immovably fixed in 
it, notwithstanding that his boyhood and youth were 
passed in the midst of the Lutheranism of Sweden. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE REIGN OF KING JOHN FROM 1 568 TO 1 583. 

IN the last chapter, after a description of the events 
which resulted in the accession of Duke John to 
the throne of Sweden, and an account of his general 
political policy in the administration of the kingdom, 
there followed a sketch of the condition of Poland up 
to the period of the election of Sigismund, the son of 
King John, to the throne of that country. It may seem 
that it would have been a more natural course to have 
proceeded with the narrative of events in Sweden up 
to the period of the election of Sigismund; and then to 
have given that sketch of the affairs of Poland to the 
time when they became implicated with those of Swe- 
den. It seemed, however, that in proceeding with the 
story of John's reign, a more definite impression of it 
would be conveyed if the narrative were not inter- 
rupted by a description of the condition of Poland 
previous to the election of Sigismund; and if we were 
so far in possession of its history as to follow intelli- 
gently the proceedings in which the two kingdoms 
were subsequently involved. 
„ . During the whole period in which those ec- 

Pohtical . . . . v . T _ 

Condition clesiastical events occurred King John was 

from 1568 constantly engaged in war with Denmark 

or with Russia. The war with Denmark he 

had inherited on his accession, 1568, from Eric. A dis- 



194 The Reformation in Sweden. 

graceful truce for six months, to be consummated by 
a more disgraceful peace, which had been entered into 
by Eric, was disavowed by the States under King John. 
War was resumed to the advantage of Sweden; and the 
Congress of Stettin, under the mediation of the Em- 
peror of Austria, the King of France, and the Elector 
of Saxony, concluded a peace in 1570 which was ad- 
vantageous and honorable to Sweden. But the war 
with Russia, in which the possession of Livonia was 
contested, and which led to successful Swedish inva- 
sions and great victories in Russia, and to horrible bar- 
barities on the part of Ivan the Terrible in Finland, 
was not closed until 1582. 

Immediately after his coronation at Upsala 
tire for Res- King John confirmed his brother Charles in 
toration of t h e government of Sudermania, Nericia and 

Romanism. ° . . 

Wormland, which had been assigned to him 
in the last will of Gustavus. This he did, not only to 
give him some satisfaction for depriving him of an equal 
position in the government of the kingdom, but also to 
remove him from Stockholm, that he might not be able 
to counteract the measures which the king had deter- 
mined upon for the restoration of Romanism. His pol- 
icy was not to attempt at once and violently to restore 
it; but gradually to prepare the way for its introduc- 
tion, by so modifying the liturgy and increasing the 
splendor of the ceremonies, as to create a taste and 
habit which would not ultimately be satisfied with any- 
thing less than the full restoration of the Romish sys- 
tem. Soon after his coronation he proposed to the 
clergy some articles relating to the vestments to be 
used in the public worship and the garments to be or- 
dinarily worn by the clergy, which would present them 
to the people in a garb closely resembling that of the 



The Reformation in Sweden. 195 

Romish ecclesiastics. Other regulations concerning 
discipline and dependence upon the bishops were pro- 
posed which had the same design. But these articles 
were at once rejected by the clergy. The movement 
of the king was premature, abrupt and unskillful. It 
produced just that conviction of his intention to re- 
store Romanism which he wished to disguise. 

After concluding a peace with Denmark, 1 570, 
ciiis' Summa- King John again, and in a more skillful man- 
ry of Luther- ner> resumed his settled purpose to bring back 

an Doctrine. . . . . it i-t. tt 

the kingdom to obedience to the rope. Hav- 
ing heard that the Archbishop Nericius, of Stockholm, 
had composed a work which was intended as a sum- 
mary of the Christian doctrine as held by the Swedish 
Church, he requested the archbishop to allow him to 
see it before it should be published. Having read it 
over he persuaded the archbishop to leave out some 
of the most pronounced statements of the Lutheran 
doctrine; and to state some points in controversy be- 
tween the Lutheran and Catholic Church in vague and 
general phraseology. The archbishop not only con- 
sented to these modifications but also to the statement 
at the close of the book, "that there were several 
things wanting to render it complete, which he recom- 
mended his successor to supply." The king also suc- 
ceeded in having it sanctioned by synodical authority; 
which gave it the same position in the Swedish Church 
as the Apology of Jewel and that of Melancthon oc- 
cupied in the Churches of England and Germany. But 
the book was not allowed to pass unquestioned. Some 
of the clergy exposed its unsound or unsatisfactory 
statements; but, as usual in such cases, a party arose 
in the kingdom favorable, not as yet to the rein- 
statement of the Papal power, but to an advanced 



196 The Reformation in Sweden. 

doctrinal system, approaching that of Rome, and to 
the introduction of a higher and more showy ritual. 
The device of the king seemed, as a first step, to be 
successful. 

Policy of the So strongly, however, did the majority of the 
King. clergy adhere to the Augsburg Confession, 

that the king found it necessary to declare that his design 
was the same as that of some of the Lutheran divines in 
Germany, who labored to bring Romanists and Luther- 
ans to unite upon the basis of the doctrine and discipline 
of the undivided Church of the first six centuries. Such 
had been the policy of Ferdinand I. of Austria in his 
later days — a policy which he attempted to accomplish 
through the agency of Cassander, a Lutheran divine, 
and of two of his Roman theologians, Staphylus and 
Wizel. This, however, was not the real object of the 
king. The avowed design of Cassander was his real 
one; whereas King John hypocritically professed to 
adopt it only with the view to pass onward from it to 
full union with the Church of Rome. This scheme had 
proved to be quite impracticable in Germany, as John 
well knew; but it might serve to deceive those who 
were alarmed at the innovations which seemed to look 
Romeward. " And to compass his design the better," 
says Puffendorf, " he called a convocation of the bishops 
and ministers of every diocese at Stockholm, to consult 
about the choice of a new archbishop; to whom he rep- 
resented how many heresies daily grew up in Europe; 
and how great troubles and disorders they had occa- 
sioned in the Low Countries, France and Germany; 
whence he inferred that it was best to adhere to the 
doctrine of the Catholic and Apostolic Church. To 
which he added, that when their predecessors had gone 
about to destroy the ancient errors they had also at the 



The Reformation in Sweden. 197 

same time abolished several good and decent ordi- 
nances, to the great prejudice of piety." 
A new Lit- The king gradually induced his clergy to 
ur sy- accept a Liturgy which was, in large part, 

his own work, and which was a near approach to the 
offices of the Roman Church. The service for the ad- 
ministration of the eucharist, which was called a mass, 
and bore a great resemblance to the Roman office, was 
the first changed form that was accepted by the clergy. 
John made its acceptance the condition of filling the 
long vacant sees of Linkoping and of Westeras. But, 
even after their election, the king would not consent to 
confirm them in their temporalities until they had 
signed some Articles in which they pledged their con- 
sent to further alterations in the Liturgy. The king 
then summoned a synod at Stockholm for the revision 
of all the forms and offices of the Church, with the pro- 
fessed view of bringing them into conformity with those 
of the Church of the first six centuries. Under the 
pressure of the king and of the newly consecrated 
bishops the synod consented to the proposed changes. 
They introduced several ceremonies of the Romish 
Church, such especially as related to the sacraments 
and the consecration of priests and bishops. This form- 
ulary was called " The Liturgy of the Church of Szveden, 
according to the Catholic and Orthodox Church" and 
was published in Latin and Swedish, that at first they 
might make use of both languages; and that when the 
people should become accustomed to it they might 
drop the use of the Swedish altogether. 

Avenc of the "^ ls not to ^ e supposed that the Pope would 
Pope in these remain ignorant or an inactive spectator of 
Movements. these pr0C eedings. The character of John 
was such as to lay him open to flatteries and intrigues 



198 The Reformation in Sweden. 

of subtle Papists and to the influence of his noble and 
gifted wife. He was a man of large learning, — speak- 
ing and writing readily and well German, French, Ital- 
ian, and English; and able to make long Latin speeches 
without premeditation. Theology was the science of 
the age and during his long imprisonment he devoted 
himself to it; and at first seemed really to have adopted 
the views of Cassander, which he subsequently brought 
forward as a blind to his purpose of introducing Ro- 
manism. But, says Geijer, "We should do him too 
much honor if we should suppose that he had pene- 
trated to the core of the question. He loved hie- 
rarchic like all other pomp, and devised ceremonies 
for divine worship, as he did arms for the provinces, 
decorations for his buildings, and additions to his 
titles." 

On such a nature it was easy for the Pope to work. 
The queen's zeal was stimulated by the praises which 
she received from Rome. Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius 
wrote to her that she was extolled to heaven on ac- 
count of her care for the eternal salvation of her hus- 
band. " He had already," the letter continued, "in- 
timated his wish that some learned and pious Jesuits 
should be sent to him. Hereof the whole city con- 
verses." In another letter the cardinal reproaches her 
"for suffering herself to be persuaded by the king to 
take the Holy Supper under both forms of bread and 
wine, instructing her how to answer the objections of 
her husband, and at the same time bring him back 
gradually to the bosom of the Church. She must ex- 
hort him first to restore priests to office, and to resume 
the celebration of the mass. If that were done, then 
the Church, as a tender mother, might even permit the 
use of the cup to the laity. This was written in 1572. 



The Reformation in Sweden. 199 

Two years later the same promise is repeated, with the 
condition, however, that some token of return to the use 
of the mass must be given before negotiations can be 
opened for the restoration of the cup. In a letter to 
the king in 1576 the cardinal expresses his gratification 
that the return to the ceremonies was being gradually 
effected; and in another letter, of October, 1577, he 
thanks God for the king's conversion. When the two 
Jesuits, Florentius Fayt and Laurentius Novegus, came 
to Stockholm they gave themselves out as evangelical 
preachers. From the labors of the latter the cardinal 
expected great 'results, because as a Norwegian he 
could make himself easily understood by the people. 
" Seek above all," he wrote to John Herbst, the queen's 
court chaplain, " that he may obtain a church wherein 
to preach. Let him avoid offense. Let him extol 
faith to heaven, and depreciate works without faith, 
preaching Christ as the only Mediator and His cross as 
the only means of salvation; thereupon let him show 
that nothing else has been preached in the Papacy." 
That Rome regarded all measures against Protestants 
as lawful, appears not only from this incident, but from 
another which occurred just previous to the same pe- 
riod. When Henry of Valois, in 1573, was elected king 
of Poland, the cardinal advises that the Protestants 
there abiding should be fed with hopes until after the 
coronation; but if the king had even promised them on 
oath, the freedom of their religion, he was not bound 
to its observance. 

Condition of The deplorable condition into which the 
the Church church had fallen during the reign of Eric, 

on Accession . r . . . - _ . TT 

of King greatly favored the designs of John. He 
John. made it to appear that he was laboring for 

a restoration, rather than for the overthrow, of the old 



200 The Reformation in Sweden. 

church order. In the Articles concerning - the clergy, 
issued in 1569 and 1574, complaints are made that ig- 
norant students were called to the priesthood; that 
homicides, topers, and adulterers, exercised it with im- 
punity; that many clergymen neglected their calling for 
trade and other secular business; that they gave no 
thought to their sermon, before they came into the 
church, and then read out of the Book of Homilies 
what came to hand, whether or not it might suit the 
gospel of the day; that they went to the altar in torn 
or unclean vestments, and dispensed the sacraments 
with foul hands. Many churches had fallen into decay 
and ruin. The church plate had disappeared so en- 
tirely that clay vessels were used in the dispensation 
of the sacraments, notwithstanding, as the king com- 
plained, the clergy had silver cups in their own houses. 
The nobility and possessors of the tithes held not only 
the crown's two-thirds of the tithes, but also often that 
portion of them which was intended for the mainte- 
nance of the church and clergy. The king issued re- 
peated prohibitions against this abuse, and expended 
large sums on the erection and improvement of the 
churches, and on the provision of proper vessels and 
suitable decorations for the orderly and reverent ad- 
ministration of the ordinances of divine worship. He 
would even provide for the reclothing of ragged priests 
who came in his way. All these measures tended to rec- 
oncile the clergy and the people to his innovations in 
the public service, so long as they could regard them 
as evidences of his mere harmless eccentricity, or his 
high ritualistic tastes. 



The Reformation in Sweden. 201 

The Kirk's The aged and faithful archbishop, a decided 
Ordinance Protestant, endeavored to counteract the de- 
Laurentms sign of the king, and at the same time to 
Petri. reform the deplorable evils of the church. 

He drew up in 1571 the Kirk's Ordinance, which was 
sanctioned by a synod. Some of its regulations were 
new, called out by the evils of the time, and others 
were a republication of regulations which had fallen 
into disuse or neglect. A new regulation, in the Prot- 
estant direction, provided that a call or an assent of 
the congregation should be obtained before a priest 
should be instituted. To the bishop was given the 
power of refusing ordination to candidates whom he 
judged to be incompetent or unworthy. The candi- 
date for ordination was required to be at least " toler- 
ably conversant with the Holy Scriptures." He was 
bound to understand the Latin language and to be 
able to speak it. If he wished to acquire Greek or He- 
brew he must provide masters for himself. The bishop 
was to take care that the people should be instructed 
in the catechism; and no one was admitted to full 
membership with the church who did not know the 
Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. 
The minister was allowed to take his sermon from the 
Book of Homilies. A singular regulation provided 
that a person who had been excluded from commun- 
ion for notorious transgressions might remain in the 
Church during the sermon, but must afterwards with- 
draw; if he resisted, and would not go out, divine ser- 
vice was to close. The old and the severest church 
penalty was retained, which compelled great offenders, 
and those especially who were guilty of fornication and 
adultery, to stand naked before the church door. The 
seven cathedrals of the kingdom were to be provided 



202 The Reformation in Sweden. 

with a modest staff of officials — the bishop, his com- 
missary or chancellor, an assistant minister, the acting 
rector of the church, a schoolmaster, a teacher of the- 
ology, a penitentiary, and a church warden. The 
bishop was to be elected by the clergy, and a selected 
number of the laity. The episcopal title was again 
generally assumed under the reign of John, though not 
enforced by canon. 

We can see in these regulations the effort of the 
bishop and the clergy to resist the innovations of the 
king and to retain, and even to increase, the simplicity 
in the performance of the services which prevailed 
under Gustavus. But, as we shall see, these efforts 
were of little avail. An opposite policy was adopted 
by the successor of the archbishop. The venerable 
friend of King Gustavus died two years after these reg- 
ulations were made — regulations which seem not to 
have been enforced, beyond the bounds of his own im- 
mediate jurisdiction. 

T .. After the death of the archbishop, 1 572, which 

Petri Gothus removed the greatest obstacle to his reaction- 
ist Abp. ar y p ji C y j King John more openly proclaimed 
and prosecuted his designs. He caused his own son-in- 
law, Laurentius Petri Gothus, to be chosen archbishop. 
The new primate was a man of compliant temper, and 
by a devotion to the works of the Fathers, upon which 
he held prelections in Upsala, had persuaded himself 
that a system midway between Romanism and Prot- 
estantism was that which had prevailed in the primi- 
tive church, and should be adopted in Sweden. He 
drew up and subscribed, and induced some of the clergy 
to subscribe — for they were not enforced by synodical 
action — seventeen articles in which the restoration of 
convents, veneratien of the saints, prayers for the dead, 



The Reformation in Sweden. 203 

and most of the ceremonies of the old church, were ap- 
proved. He was consecrated with full hierarchical pomp 
in 1575. There was used on that occasion for the first 
time the episcopal mantle, miter, and crosier, which the 
Swedish bishops afterwards retained, although at that 
time they were much opposed by the clergy. By the 
king's express command the ceremony of anointing the 
bishop was also performed. It was in the following year 
that the Jesuits of whom I have spoken came to Stock- 
holm. They were received without suspicion as good 
Lutherans. As they were highly esteemed for their 
learning, and the mass of the clergy were but little edu- 
cated, the king required all of them that were in Stock- 
holm to attend their lectures. The king caused them to 
hold public disputations in which he himself took part, 
and inveighed vehemently against the Pope, but allowed 
himself to be easily confuted. Numerous secret con- 
versions were effected. The scheme of the king seemed 
about to succeed. But the Pope, Gregory XIII., began 
to be impatient of these slow and secret proceedings, 
and at the degree in which the king assumed to guide 
and control the affairs of the church. When the king 
proposed to the Pope that the priests should for the 
present read inaudibly the invocations to saints, and 
the prayers for the dead, the latter demanded that 
such methods should be abandoned, and exhorted 
the king, if he were earnest and conscientious in the 
matter, to make a public profession of the Catholic 
faith. 

The Liturgy which, as we have seen, was 

The Liturgy ° J ' . ' . 

not univer- constructed according to the views of the 
tally ac- ki nS r under the direction of Peter Herbst, 

cepted. 1 1 t • tvt 

his queen s chaplain, and the Jesuit JNorvegus, 
was published by the authority of the archbishop, who 



204 The Reformation in Sweden. 

assumed its authorship; and was also sanctioned by 
Erasmus, Bishop of Westeras. But it was not univer- 
sally approved and adopted. The Duke Charles, when 
earnestly requested by the king to introduce it in the 
regions under his jurisdiction, peremptorily refused; 
and reminded him that according to their father's will 
they were bound not to make or allow any alteration 
in the established religion of the kingdom. The court- 
iers declared that the bishops and clergy were bound 
to obey the archbishop as their spiritual father, who, 
by the very nature of his office, was invested with pa- 
triarchal authority. The king issued a decree that 
henceforth the election of a bishop should not rest 
with the clergy of the diocese alone; but that the 
Archbishop and Archchapter of Upsala, should be 
co-electors. All ecclesiastical promotions were con- 
ditioned upon the acceptance of the Liturgy. The 
king required the ministers of Stockholm to send to 
him their opinion of it in writing. They replied, 
through Mr. Abraham, Rector of their High School, 
that it seemed to them that it must be the design, 
as it certainly was the tendency, of the introduction 
of the Liturgy, to restore Romanism. This stout an- 
swer brought down upon them the wrath of the king, 
and their dismissal from office, and the imprisonment 
of some of them. They replied that although they had 
subscribed the Liturgy in its first form, various addi- 
tions had since been made to it, which they could not, 
with a good conscience, sanction. They expressed a 
willingness to appeal to and abide by the decisions 
of a free Synod called to consider the subject. 

Accordingly a Synod was held at Stockholm in 
which all the clergy of Sweden, with the exception 
of those under the government of Duke Charles, were 



The Reformation in Sweden. 205 

represented. The power of the king and the influence 
of the archbishop secured a majority in favor of the 
Liturgy. An article was adopted which prepared the 
way for the reception of the full Romish doctrine of a 
propitiatory sacrifice of Christ in the mass, by the as- 
sertion of an unbloody sacrifice. Mr. Abraham, and 
the clergy of Stockholm and the professors of Upsala, 
vigorously and boldly contested this position, and re- 
sisted the introduction of the Liturgy. They were 
immediately deposed and put in prison. The king 
found little difficulty in bringing the National Diet 
to sign the Liturgy and to pass a decree that who- 
soever should oppose the decisions of the Synod and 
refuse to accept it should be accounted enemies of the 
State. And with all this influence and these penalties 
in support of the action of the Synod and the Diet the 
king required three other eminent professors of Upsala, 
who were not present at the Synod, to give him their 
opinion concerning these measures in writing, and felt 
assured that they would be intimidated from giving 
an adverse answer. But they absolutely rejected the 
Liturgy, and the doctrinal decrees of the Synod; and 
argued at length against them on the authority of 
Luther and other eminent divines. They also appealed 
to the great Universities of Germany — Wittemberg, 
Leipsic, Helmstadt and Frankford — for their judg- 
ment in the matter. These all and earnestly con- 
demned the Liturgy, and denounced it as a palpable 
device to reinstate the Church of Rome in its old su- 
premacy in Sweden. These emphatic Protestant tes- 
timonies and demonstrations very considerably checked 
the progress of the Romeward movement. 



206 The Reformation in Sweden. 

The K ' ^ n ^ ie au ^ umn preceding this Synod the 
Embassy 1 to king had sent Pontus de la Gardie and Peter 
the Pope. Fechten on an embassy to the Pope. They 
were shipwrecked in the Baltic, and Fechten perished; 
but his colleague proceeded on his mission. John re- 
quested the Pope to enjoin the Catholic churches 
throughout the world to offer prayers for the restor- 
ation of the Catholic religion in the north of Europe, 
but not to specify Sweden by name. He begged that 
the cup should be given to the laity; that the bishops 
should be judged by the king in capital cases and 
accusations of treason; that no claims should be made 
on church estates that had been confiscated; that the 
college erected in Stockholm, where already secret 
instructions in Catholic doctrines were given, might 
receive the Papal confirmation, and the teachers be 
exempted for the present from wearing the monkish 
garb; that King Gustavus and King Eric and all the 
nobility who had died out of the communion of the 
church, should not be disturbed in their graves; that 
priests' marriages should be allowed, while celibacy 
should be encouraged and lauded as the better life; 
that the king might without sin join in the worship 
of the heretics, until the Catholic rites and services 
should be established. John assured the Pope that 
the way was prepared for the reinstatement of the 
Catholic worship by the restored dignity and splendor 
of the services, by the renewal of several abolished 
holy days, by the introduction of fast days and con- 
fession, by the restoration of convents, which had al- 
ready begun, and by the education of several noble 
Swedish youths in Rome, Vienna, and other Catholic 
cities. 



The Reformation in Sweden. 207 

Mission of The suggestions of King John were by no 
the Jesuit means satisfactory to the Pope. They al- 
Anthony lowed far too much power in ecclesiastical 
Possevin. affairs to be exercised by the king, to be 
compatible with the Pope's claim to absolute, univer- 
sal, unquestioned and unquestionable authority. Mean- 
while, disguising his dissatisfaction, he dispatched Car- 
dinal Possevin to Stockholm to work on the king's mind 
and bring him into full subjection to the Papal policy. 
In order to avoid a clamor among the people, the car- 
dinal came not as a Nuncio — which he was in fact— 
from the Pope, but as the representative of the em- 
peror. At Wadstena, in 1578, King John was secretly 
reconciled and brought into full communion with the 
Catholic Church, in the presence of the cardinal. From 
that period the proceedings of the king in favor of the 
Catholic Church, and against that which was estab- 
lished, become more open. No doubt could longer 
remain in the minds of the Protestants that the king 
was resolutely bent on the full restoration not only 
of the Catholic worship, but of the Papal power. The 
Bishop of Linkoping, Martin Olaveson, was stripped 
of his Episcopal robes publicly before the altar of his 
own cathedral, for having called the Pope Antichrist. 
His see was bestowed on the infamous Peter Carlson, 
Ordinary of Calmar, a parasite of Eric, who was pop- 
ularly believed to have instigated the murder of the 
Stures. All passages against the Pope were expelled 
from the Canticles. Luther's Catechism was banished 
from the schools. New silver shrines were provided 
for the relics of saints, which were brought out from 
the midst of the lumber to which they had been con- 
signed for the last fifty years. An abridgement of 
Canon Law was drawn up for the guidance of the 



208 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Swedish Church. When the chair of the archbishop 
became vacant, in 1579, it was allowed to remain un- 
occupied for four years, in the hope that a Romanist 
might be appointed. Jesuits under manifold disguises 
entered the kingdom. John designed to employ them 
in the University, which he caused to be removed from 
Upsala to Stockholm, because of the stout resistance 
which its professors continued to offer to his designs. 
Many Swedish youths were sent out of the country to 
be educated in Jesuit schools. 

Such was the rapid course of events and proceed- 
ings which seemed to make the restoration of Roman- 
ism probable, or a deadly struggle in the kingdom 
inevitable, when an event occurred which led to a 
reaction in the mind of the king, and to a pause in 
the aggressive measures which he had begun. The 
queen, Catherine Jagellonica, whose eminent virtues 
were admitted by all classes and parties in Sweden, 
died in 1583. From that time the advancing wave 
of Romish influence, which seemed about to overflow 
the whole land, had reached its highest point and 
began to recede. We should call it one of the insolu- 
ble mysteries of His government who is head over all 
things to His Church, that the orthodox faith of the 
Christian world under Constantine, and the Protestant 
faith of a kingdom under King John should be, or 
seem to be, dependent upon the fickle minds of two 
unworthy monarchs, did we not remember that neither 
does God govern the world, nor Christ the Church, by 
the annihilation of the freedom of the human will. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE^REIGN OF KING JOHN FROM 1 583, TO HIS 
DEATH, 1592. 

Reaction in 'WT'^^ tne arcn bishop was fully con- 
theMindof » * vinced that it was the design of the 
the Abp. king to restore the Papal power in Sweden, 
he repented of his agency in sanctioning and assuming 
the authorship of the Liturgy. Nor did he fail to ex- 
press to the king his regret at his reactionary meas- 
ures, which had led to a system which was neither 
Protestantism nor Romanism, but which would inevi- 
tably end in the latter. Perceiving, however, that he 
exerted no influence with the king, and feeling that he 
had been used as a tool to further an object which 
he abhorred, and seeing that the cardinal, Possevin, 
had acquired absolute ascendency over the mind of the 
fickle king, he was brought, through jealousy of the car- 
dinal and disapproval of the ends aimed at by the king, 
into a hostile attitude of mind, the blended result of 
mortification, indignation, and penitence. He now 
openly opposed the policy which he had been the 
chief agent to establish. He wrote, and published 
anonymously, a little book in which he unsparingly 
exposed the intrigues and denounced the errors of the 
Church of Rome. As he was a man of compliant, ra- 
ther than an evil, nature, he bitterly bewailed his ac- 
quiescence in measures, whose real object he did not 



210 The Reformation in Sweden. 

discern, which threatened to bring back the spiritual 
and temporal servitude from which Sweden had been 
emancipated by the heroic efforts of Gustavus. He 
died in the course of the following year under the 
frowns of the king, the hatred of the people, and the 
reproaches of his conscience. 

Notwithstanding the opposition of many of 

PcVS ZCZltlOTl 

of those who the most eminent men in the kingdom to 
opposed the the Liturgy and to measures which looked 
to the restoration of the Papacy, the king 
obstinately persisted in his policy. That opposition 
had appeared in an official form of so grave a charac- 
ter that it would seem calculated to make one even as 
conceited and obstinate as John to pause. When a 
diet was summoned to consider the question of a league 
between Poland and Sweden to resist the progress of 
the Russians in Livonia and Esthonia, that body de- 
voted more attention to the religious condition of the 
country than to the object for which they were sum- 
moned. They represented to the king that as he had 
introduced many innovations in the religion of the 
country, it was commonly believed that he intended to 
restore Catholicism; and they therefore entreated him 
to declare in the presence of the States that the doc- 
trine of the Church of Sweden was agreeable to that 
of the primitive Church; to take measures for banish- 
ing the Popish books that had been introduced into the 
kingdom; and to educate the prince Sigismund in the 
Protestant religion, in order that he might be more ac- 
ceptable to the people, and that they might not fear 
that, on his accession, he would force them to become 
members of the Church of Rome. But King John had 
passed quite beyond any influence from remonstrances 
like these. It was at a period when he was most com- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 211 

pletely in subjection to Possevin, and most earnest in 
his purpose to restore the Papacy. The opposition to 
the Liturgy had found more or less emphatic expres- 
sion from 1576 to the death of the queen, and every- 
where it had been met with persecution, and in some 
cases with the penalty of death. The king complains 
in 1576 that in the diocese of Skara, Master Maurice 
of Bone had endeavored to raise a great tumult against 
it among councilors and nobles. The priest was ex- 
amined by torture, and put to death with several of 
his followers. In 1580 an order was given that the 
revenues of those clergymen who did not observe the 
Liturgy should be withheld; in 1582 it was enforced 
under heavier penalties. Priests who refused obedi- 
ence were deposed and imprisoned or driven into 
exile. Nothing so irritated the king as the rejec- 
tion of his Liturgy. He even inflicted personal vio- 
lence on a clergyman of Stockholm, named Scheffer, 
and so trampled upon him that the poor man's health 
was broken for the remainder of his life. 
Reaction in After the death of the queen it was observed 
the Mind of that the zeal of the king for the restoration 

the King. of the p apacy began tQ cooL The with _ 

drawal of her influence on that behalf was not the 
only, nor perhaps the most powerful, cause of this 
change of feeling. Political resentments contributed 
to the same result. He had solicited, and through the 
mediation of the Pope he had hoped to obtain, the Ne- 
apolitan dukedoms of Bari and Rossini, on which his 
wife had claims from her mother, Bona Sforzia. Nei- 
ther had this expectation been fulfilled, nor had the 
promise of the Pope to labor for the interests of Sweden 
in the peace between Poland and Russia been kept. 
On the contrary, the treaty negotiated under the me- 



212 . The Reformation in Sweden. 

diation of Possevin confirmed the Polish claims to the 
Swedish possessions in Livonia. Not long after these 
events we find John so exasperated against the Pope 
that he actually began to persecute the Catholics. 
Laurence Forss, a minister of Stockholm who had be- 
come a Catholic, was deposed with the same degrading 
ceremonies which had been employed in the case of 
the Bishop of Linkoping for having called the Pope 
Antichrist. The Jesuits were banished from the realm, 
their new college in Stockholm abolished, and the in- 
struction of its students assigned to Lutheran profes- 
sors. By a proclamation all converts to the Catholic 
Church were threatened with exile, if they did not 
speedily recant. While the king was in this mood he 
turned his attention for a time to the Greek Church, 
and believed that by connecting himself with it he 
might still retain and enforce his beloved Liturgy. 
But when he found that the Greek Church was even 
less flexible in its forms than the Latin, and that no 
departures from her ritual would be allowed, he settled 
down on his original purpose of enforcing his own 
mongrel forms. His position was such as made it quite 
impossible for any large number of persons who had 
been either Protestants or Romanists to accept his sys- 
tem ex animo, although many would seemingly acqui- 
esce in it, in order to escape punishment or acquire 
promotion. 

The young Prince Sigismund had been care- 
Charaaerof fully trained by his mother in the Catholic 
Prince Sig- f a ith. On her death bed she solemnly ex- 
horted him to be faithful to his creed and to 
turn a deaf ear to all persuasions to apostatize. The 
prince, who had far more steadiness of character than 
his father, though with much less intellectual force, 



The Reformation in Sweden. 213 

had accepted Catholicism with full conviction, and 
held it in the tight grasp with which narrow minds 
hold exclusive systems, and threw into it a fervor of 
zeal which became almost fanaticism. It was in vain 
that the senators and nobles of the kingdom endeavored 
to induce him to accept the Protestant faith. They 
made no impression upon him. The change in his 
father's policy after his mother's death seemed to 
render her principles and her character all the more 
sacred to him. When the nobles who attempted to 
influence him stated that by adhering to the Roman 
Church he would forfeit his right of succession to the 
crown, he answered that he preferred the kingdom of 
heaven to all the kingdoms of the earth. Dark indeed 
seemed the prospects of Protestantism in Sweden. A 
vascillating and arbitrary king, rooting out now the 
Romanism which he had fostered and repressing the 
Protestantism which was its only effective antagonist, 
in the vain attempt to establish a visionary via media of 
his own invention which was equally repugnant to both 
parties— such was the situation! Between two sharply 
defined systems, which differ from their foundation all the 
way up to their ultimate development, there can be no 
standing place, but only a gulf of separation. Via media 
in such a case is via perditionis. Add to this deplorable 
present, the prospect of a bigoted young Catholic king 
as the successor to the throne, and we may well be- 
lieve that the hearts of all true Protestants must have 
had forebodings of new scenes of blood and sorrow. 
The only point of hope on which their eyes could rest 
was Duke Charles, whose decisive character and great 
abilities and determined resistance of the Papal pro- 
pagandism in his provinces, seemed to furnish a pledge 
that when the inevitable battle between the two sys- 



214 The Reformation in Sweden. 

terns should commence, Protestantism would have in 
him a champion and leader not unworthy of his heroic 
parentage. 

Hostile At- In Reference to Temporal Interests. We have 
tttude of seen how treacherously King John violated 
and Duke the compact by which he and Duke Charles 
Charles. were to exercise an equal sovereignty. The 
anomalous relation of the two brothers, and the conflict 
of jurisdiction between the crown which claimed author- 
ity over all the kingdom, and the duke who asserted his 
independent sovereignty over the provinces assigned to 
him, led to many bitter conflicts and mutual recrimina- 
tions. War would certainly have ensued between the 
brothers had not John been conscious that he would be 
supported by no partisans within the jurisdiction of 
Charles; and that Charles had some avowed and many 
more secret and earnest friends, who would rally at once 
around a banner on which the venerable name of Gustavus 
and the word Protestantism should be inscribed. That 
the claim of Charles was in conformity to the settlement 
made by Gustavus and sanctioned by the States, is clear. 
His independent jurisdiction was not to be interfered 
with, and when the emergencies of national politics 
called for the united action of all Sweden, this was to 
be obtained, not by the authority of the king over the 
domain of Charles, but by a general diet of the States 
gathered from every part of the kingdom. It was a 
system indeed which could not work without constant 
friction; but whether wise or unwise it was the su- 
preme law of the land. The will of the king declared 
indeed on the one side that the princes should have 
no right to sever themselves or their fiefs from the 
crown of Sweden; that they were bound to be true 
to the king, and obliged to assist him in conflicts with 



The Reformation in Sweden. 215 

foreign powers with the largest force which they could 
raise; but, on the other side, the king says that "the 
principalities are delivered up to them with all their 
appurtenances and advantages as we have possessed 
the same on behalf of the crown without exception!' He 
adds: "Our dear sons, as well he who comes into the 
throne and government, as the others with their heirs, 
shall in relation to those affairs on which the general 
welfare of the realm depends, undertake, transact, or 
conclude, nothing, be it peace or war or compacts or 
alliances, important to the State unless it be done with 
the counsel and assent of all the estates and divers of 
the chief men of the realm." It would be difficult to 
express a conjoint reign more distinctly, especially as 
each of the brothers is even allowed, in cases where 
manifest advantages can be gained for Sweden, and 
time does not allow a common deliberation, to follow 
his own resolution. In short, Charles was not the 
king's viceroy, but a sovereign prince with a more inde- 
pendent and looser relation to the sovereign power than 
that now held by the separate German kingdoms to 
the emperor of Germany. 

In Reference to Religion. Even if differences between 
the brothers in reference to secular interests could have 
been adjusted, it was impossible that Charles could be 
at cordial peace with John, so long as the latter per- 
sisted in demanding that he should accept and enforce 
his Liturgy. Charles constantly replied that he would 
not depart by a hair's breadth from the doctrine and 
polity and ritual which had been laid down, after God's 
Word, by his father, and which he had solemnly enjoined 
his sons to observe and defend. All negotiations on 
this subject were entirely fruitless. When the king 
ordered the use of his Liturgy throughout the kingdom, 



216 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Charles forbade it within his principality, and adhered 
to the Kirk's Ordinances of 1571. He was sustained in 
this position by his clergy and people; and he protected 
and favored those who were persecuted by the king, 
and fled to him; " because," he writes to the king, " we 
profess ourselves of the religion by which they hold." 
The Bishop of Linkoping, whom John had deprived, 
was nominated by Charles pastor of Nykoping. The 
theological professors of Upsala, five of whom at differ- 
ent times had been deprived and imprisoned on ac- 
count of the Liturgy, enjoyed his protection; and one of 
them, Peter Jonson, was raised to the Bishopric of Streng- 
ness. The preachers of Stockholm who rejected the 
Liturgy also fled to him and were favorably received. 
Many retracted the assent to the new service which 
they had given under pressure and threats, after they 
had become convinced that John intended, or that his 
measures would lead to, the restoration of Romanism. 
Reports were circulated through all the kingdom that 
the late archbishop had died in agonies of conscience. 
In the year 1587 so numerous had the refugees into 
Charles' principality become that the king threatened 
war, unless his Liturgy were adopted, and these fugi- 
tives sent back. Charles calmly replied that he would 
leave the question of the acceptance of the Liturgy to 
the clergy; and he made no promise of the restoration 
of the refugees. The Liturgy was condemned, as 
Charles was sure it would be, at a synod held at Streng- 
ness. The king vented his wrath upon them in a violent 
letter, in which he called the clergy unlearned smatter- 
ers, ass-heads, Satanists, and declared that they should 
be treated as outlaws throughout his dominions. 

The Red Book of John, as his Liturgy was called, was 
thus the cause of the most perilous misunderstanding 



The Reformation in Sweden. 217 

between the brothers; and so violent was the strain, that 
war ever seemed upon the point of breaking out. Men 
saw in Charles the faithful son and representative of 
Gustavus, whose name was more and more venerated as 
time, and the contrast with his successors, manifested 
his greatness. They accepted him also as a champion 
of the reformation, not only from political and patriotic 
motives, but also from profound religious convictions. 
It was in fact the same struggle of principles, though 
under somewhat different forms and watchwords, which 
was convulsing Bohemia and Austria; and seemed about 
to culminate in the restoration of the Papacy over all 
the countries of Europe, except England and Scotland. 
When we look forward a few years and see how on the 
labors of that great hero, Gustavus Adolphus, — the 
noble knight, the consummate general, the pure and 
earnest Christian, —the salvation of periled Protestant- 
ism in Europe depended, and how by his victories the 
thirty years' war resulted in securing the rights of Prot- 
estant States, and remember that it was the fidelity of 
Charles which made it possible for Adolphus to succeed 
to a Protestant throne and kingdom, we perceive that 
we are not dealing with an insignificant struggle in a 
small and distant kingdom, whose issue would not af- 
fect the great interests of Europe and the world; but 
we recognize that we are spectators of an arena where 
champions for the truth are in the process of training 
for a victorious struggle which will entitle them to the 
gratitude and admiration of all succeeding time. 
John's sec- I n l ess than a year after the death of the 
ond Mar- q ueen King- John married Gunilla Bielke, 

riage, and ^ . , 5V J ' 

its Come- a maiden 01 but sixteen years of age, daugh- 
quences. j-er of a counselor of state, John Bielke. 
The marriage was celebrated with great pomp, in Feb- 



218 The Reformation in Sweden. 

ruary, 1585, at the castle of Westeras. The young wife 
favored, as far as she could without incurring the wrath 
of the king, the opponents of the Liturgy. But not 
even her great influence could deter the king from per- 
sisting in pressing it upon the kingdom. It had be- 
come a question in which he felt that his royal prero- 
gative and kingly dignity were involved. But inasmuch 
as their marriage had offended all his kindred, and in- 
creased the alienation of Charles, the king became 
seriously alarmed lest his enemies might by the aid 
of his brother overthrow him; and was thus led to 
court and to bestow new favors upon the nobility in 
order that he might rely upon their support. The 
policy was, in good measure, successful; for the court- 
iers and nobility were well aware that they could hope 
for no favoritism, or increase of their privileges, from 
the stern and austere Charles, if he should ascend the 
throne. And yet, notwithstanding this new rally of 
the favored nobility to his support, the apprehensions 
of John, in consequence of the vehement disapproval 
of his marriage by all his kindred, were rather in- 
creased than diminished. His children by his former 
marriage, Sigismund and Ann, saw with no pleasant 
feeling one of the waiting maids of their mother ad- 
vanced to the position of their queen and step-mother. 
The sisters of John wrote bitter letters to him on the 
subject; and received from him and the spirited young 
queen defiant and bitter letters in reply. Charles had 
endeavored to dissuade the king from this marriage, 
and refused to be present at its celebration. And so 
the alienation of the brothers was constantly on the 
increase. John was so nervously anxious about the 
designs of his brother that when, in 1585, he passed 
through a portion of his principality, he hastened 



The Reformation in Sweden. 219 

through it under the apprehension that he might be 
captured; and refused to allow Sigismund to engage 
in hunting lest Charles might lay an ambush for him. 
Charles showed the same distrust of his brother by re- 
fusing to attend the Diet of Wadstena without a safe- 
conduct. It was given, and Charles attended the Diet; 
but the new influence of the king with the nobility en- 
abled him to impose some restrictions upon the au- 
thority of Charles, to which he was either obliged or 
felt it policy to succumb. But upon the subject of the 
Liturgy he refused to yield, according to the language 
which he had formerly used to his brother, by a single 
hair's breadth. 

Election at first declined. On the death of 
Sigismund Stephen, King of Poland, his widow Anne, 
totheThrone the aunt of Sigismund, at once labored for 

his election. She was aided in this effort 
by delegates sent by King John to second the scheme 
— Eric Sparre and Eric Brahe. The Estates of Sweden 
were not consulted in the matter. While the negotia- 
tion was in progress Duke Charles gave, as he was 
asked to do, renewed pledges that he would remain 
true to Sigismund as heir to the Swedish throne; and 
only made the reservation that Esthonia should not 
be ceded to Poland, but should be reserved for himself. 
There was no difficulty in the matter of religion; for 
Poland required that their king should be a Catholic, 
and Sigismund would be nothing else. But other con- 
ditions to the acceptance of the throne were displeasing 
to John and to his son. These were — that Esthonia 
should revert to Poland; that Sigismund, after his 
father's death, should be king of Sweden, and trans- 
mit it to his male heir; that in cases of alleged neces- 
sity he might go to Sweden, if Poland gave her consent; 



220 The Reformation in Sweden. 

that he should keep a fleet, at his own charge, in 
Sweden (when he became king) which he should lend 
to the Poles when they were at war with Russia — that 
he might bring foreign troops to his aid in war only 
on condition that he should himself pay them. He 
should not make use of Swedish counselors in Poland 
and should have only Poles and Lithuanians for his 
guards, and give fiefs and offices in the kingdom to 
them alone. These high demands, coupled with the 
fact that, while they were yet under consideration, the 
Archduke Maxmilian of Austria was elected by a mi- 
nority party of Poles which it became necessary to re- 
press by force of arms, and the fear of committing his 
only son and heir to so turbulent a kingdom, induced 
King John, with the glad assent of Sigismund, to re- 
ject the proffered crown. But his unscrupulous agent, 
Sparre, secured his consent by disguising from him, 
and even denying, that the surrender of Esthonia was 
one of the conditions of the election. 

The Statutes of Cahnar. The evils of the subservi- 
ency of John to the nobles, which he had shown in 
order to fortify himself against Charles, and of the re- 
newal of their privileges, which had so often nullified 
the power of the throne, and which it was the life-work 
of Gustavus to destroy, now became apparent. A new 
code of statutes, drawn up by the accomplished and 
subtle Sparre, is introduced by exaggerated exaltation 
of the position and privileges of the nobility. It is 
declared that to the nobility of Sweden belong high 
reverence and honor, since they have ever held the 
chief rank after kings, from whom many of them are 
descended and some of whom have been elected to 
the throne. It is therefore to be understood that 
hereafter there are certain kinds of court service which 



The Reformation in Sweden. 221 

they shall not be called upon or expected to render, 
and not allowed to render even if they profess a will- 
ingness or a desire to do so. They are not to be em- 
ployed as guards and lackeys and servitors in the royal 
palace. Thus it is seen that, in order to secure a de- 
fense against Charles, King John had come into bond- 
age to a proud and overbearing nobility. 

Purport of the Calmar Statutes. After this omi- 
nous introduction the statutes proceed to declare the 
objects to be accomplished through their enactment. 
The number and minuteness of the conditions and 
regulations on the part of both kingdoms, with a view 
to the maintenance respectively of their rights and 
privileges, show distinctly the consciousness of both 
parties of the extreme difficulty on the part of a con- 
scientious or bigoted Catholic king of one country to 
govern satisfactorily another kingdom which was de- 
cidedly and resolutely Protestant. Their arrangements 
and conditions proved that it was regarded as extremely 
difficult; and the event showed, as it has often else- 
where been shown, that it was impossible. 

The council of Sweden prevailed upon John to in- 
sist upon certain conditions to be observed by Sigis- 
mund, when he should become king, which it is evi- 
dent that the latter, as a faithful Catholic, could not 
intend to perform. When Sigismund, as king, should 
come into Sweden he should not bring with him any 
Romish priests; and he should grant the Romish priest- 
hood in the kingdom no greater privileges than they 
already enjoyed. In Poland he should not oppress any 
Protestant officers in his service on account of their re- 
ligion; in Sweden he should not advance any of the 
Poles to offices and dignities. He should not allow any 
innovations to be made in the doctrines and ceremonies 



222 The Reformation in Sweden. 

of the Church of Sweden. The hospitals established 
by his father on Protestant foundations should not be 
changed. The extreme condition was exacted, that no 
worship, public or private, but the established Protest- 
ant worship, should be allowed. On his return to Po- 
land he should take with him the priests that were in 
his train; and while they were in Sweden they should 
not be allowed to engage in any instruction or service 
or affairs, outside the palace. The Pope should not be 
permitted to install any bishops or establish any bish- 
oprics in Sweden; and that his coronation should take 
place at Upsala and be performed by the archbishop. 
These ecclesiastical conditions were followed by those 
that were political and secular. They were drawn up 
with equal care and minuteness, with a view to main- 
tain the independence and the liberties of Sweden. 

The Commencement of the Reig?i of Sigismund in 
Poland. The collisions and misunderstandings which 
were inevitable, in a settlement which contained so 
many expedients to reconcile opposing interests, im- 
mediately occurred. The Poles insisted upon the sur- 
render of Esthonia and a part of Livonia, which had 
been assigned to them by the commissioners Sparre 
and Brahe, and the knowledge of which had been kept 
from King John and Sigismund. The new king, after 
most unpromising dissensions with his subjects, at 
length yielded the point only under a protest, which 
contemplated a future revision of the treaty. The 
commissioners feared to return to Sweden and in- 
cur the loudly-vented wrath of John at the decep- 
tion which had been passed upon him. King Sigis- 
mund made a humble excuse to his father for having 
consented to this article; but assured him that it was 
only a temporary concession which he would soon find 



The Reformation in Sweden. 223 

means to revoke. The poor young king was so dis- 
gusted with the turbulent character of his subjects, and 
of what he called their insupportable pride, that he 
conveyed to his father, through the messenger that car- 
ried his letter, his resolution to give his sister Anne in 
marriage to the Archduke Ernest of Austria, and to 
yield to him the kingdom, and return to Sweden. 

TheLiturgy Kin & J ohn P ersisted in pressing his Liturgy 
enforced upon the kingdom, with a violence in which 
there was blended the wounded pride of an 
author, with the arrogance of a despot. When the 
clergy in the principality of Charles formally and 
unanimously condemned it, he prepared a proclama- 
tion, which he ordered to be posted conspicuously 
throughout the kingdom, in which he accused these 
ecclesiastics of rebellion, heresy, and treason. His 
temper had become ungovernable, and he laid upon it 
no restraint in his private or public proceedings. He 
called the clergy who had condemned his Liturgy, dis- 
ciples of the devil, and burned all the books which Mr. 
Abraham had published against the Liturgy. The 
clergy appealed to Duke Charles, and he assured them 
of his approbation and of his purpose to support them 
to the full extent of his power. The clergy replied 
with spirit to these denunciations of the king; and re- 
ferred to the Scriptures, the Augsburg Confession, and 
Luther's Catechism, in proof of their orthodoxy. They 
also wrote a dignified exposition of their views, and an 
appeal to all the clergy and nobility to aid them in 
sustaining the faith and order of the Church, as they 
were settled by the great Gustavus. This proceeding 
so alarmed and exasperated the king that he deter- 
mined to bring back Sigismund from Poland to as- 
sist him in resisting the rising spirit of dissatisfaction 



224 The Reformation in Sweden. 

throughout the kingdom. But if that purpose had 
been accomplished, it would have served rather to in- 
crease than to quell the opposition which his arbitrary 
measures now encountered. In his anger and alarm 
he required all the clergy of Sweden — and he was gen- 
erally obeyed, except in the domains of Charles — to 
bind themselves to him by an oath that they would be 
faithful to him and not in any way assist Charles, if he 
should revolt. This writing was signed by all the 
clergy of Stockholm except one, and he was deprived, 
and treated with great indignity and violence. 
Conference The disposition of the king to rule alone, 
between uncontrolled and even uninfluenced by his 

Kings John . . . . . , 

and Sigis- counselors and estates, constantly increased. 
mioid. When his council remonstrated with him on 

the extravagance and disorder of his household, at a 
time when the resources of the kingdom Avere strained 
to the utmost by the war with Russia, which had con- 
tinued during all his reign, the king was much offended, 
and would take no steps at reformation which should 
seem to be in obedience to their suggestions. Dis- 
gusted with his position, and alarmed at the attitude 
of the subjects of Charles, and longing for a sight of 
his son Sigismund, the king determined to meet and 
confer with him at Reval. The impatience of John 
was such that he would not wait for his military es- 
cort, and against the remonstrances of his counselors, 
who earnestly endeavored to dissuade him from the 
journey, he embarked early in July with his queen 
and a newborn son, and reached Reval two weeks 
before Sigismund arrived. It was rumored and be- 
lieved by the council that John intended to bring back 
Sigismund to Sweden, and not allow him again to 
return to Poland. The kings spent a month together 



The Reformation in Sweden. 225 

at Reval. There bitter dissensions and frequent bloody 
conflicts broke out between the Swedes and Poles who 
were in the trains of the two kings. An irruption of 
Tartars into Poland furnished occasion to the coun- 
selors of Sigismund for an imperative demand that he 
should immediately return to his kingdom and his 
duties. On the other hand the Swedish council sought 
to lay before John the remonstrances determined upon 
at Upsala against bringing Sigismund into Sweden. 
John refused to see the lords who came to lay this 
protest before him. Their remonstrance painted in 
vivid colors the dreadful condition of the country, 
the result of an almost continuous war of twenty- 
eight years with Russia, and of the reckless extrava- 
gance of the king and court. Famine prevailed in 
various sections of the country. Peace was the first 
necessity of the kingdom; and Russia was now dis- 
posed to enter into negotiations. If Sigismund should 
abandon Poland and return to Sweden, as did Henry of 
Valois to France, then would irritated Poland unite with 
Russia against Sweden, and she would be ruined and 
conquered and divided. This paper was signed by 
sixty-one names of the most eminent men in the 
kingdom. When the soldiers who were at Stockholm 
heard how John had refused to listen to the remon- 
strances of the council, they assembled in high excite- 
ment before the royal palace, and threw down their 
colors, and declared with loud oaths that they would 
no longer serve his majesty, if he should bring back 
King Sigismund into Sweden. The crisis was too 
alarming to allow the king to carry out his design. 
But it was a bitter disappointment, which left rankling 
hatred in his heart against the principal counselors 
who had signed the memorial, and especially against 



226 The Reformation in Sweden. 

those lords who had attempted to present it to him 
at Reval. The two kings reluctantly parted and never 
saw each other again. John now began to find that 
the power which he had given to the nobles to be 
used for his defense against Charles, could as readily 
be directed against himself. 

The now critical relation of John with his 
Reconcilia- counselors and the nobility made it neces- 
tion with sarv f or hi m to be reconciled to Charles. It 

C/iar/es. n i • r <i r 

became all the more imperative from the tact 
that the nobles and all Sweden observed that while all 
was confusion and waste in the court and administra- 
tion of the king, the principality of Charles was com- 
paratively prosperous, and all its affairs conducted 
with system and economy. Hence Charles was rein- 
stated in all the privileges and rights connected with 
his principality, which at the suggestion of the king 
had been curtailed by the nobility at the Diet of 
Wadstena. He resided for the most at Stockholm; 
and in fact became the real administrator of the 
kingdom. John acknowledged that more was now 
accomplished in three days than formerly in as many 
months. Chafing under a sense of his comparative in- 
significance, and baffled in his attempts at an un- 
checked arbitrary rule, and exasperated with the lords 
who had so peremptorily and effectively protested 
against the return of Sigismund to Sweden, King 
John did little else than study how he might have 
his revenge on those lords and counselors who had 
defeated his cherished plan, and had treated him with 
scant respect. Selecting the names of six of the most 
obnoxious of the lords, for what he termed "the re- 
volt in Reval," he issued his commands that their fiefs 
should be sequestered, that none of them should be 



The Reformation in Sweden. 227 

admitted to any of the royal castles, and that they 
should repair to Stockholm to answer for their trea- 
son. The Estates were convoked, and the six lords 
arraigned. On making certain acknowledgments they 
were permitted to retain their estates; but they signed 
a secret document in which they protested that they 
had committed no crime, but had only exercised the 
privileges and the duties of faithful counselors of the 
king and kingdom. But the vindictive king still con- 
tinued to urge against them his charge of disloyalty 
and treason. They were imprisoned for two years; 
and during all that period were subjected to repeated 
examinations. In urging on this charge, to which he 
had added still another, to the effect that they were 
engaged in a conspiracy with many others to exclude 
Sigismund from the throne of Sweden, King John 
made the most exorbitant claims to absolute author- 
ity. It was in vain that the wives of these accused 
lords, and Sigismund himself, pleaded for them with 
the king. The appeal of Sigismund was both politic 
and just. "Even if they were not altogether guilt- 
less," he wrote, "yet should his majesty let grace 
stand for law, and ponder how grievously it would 
fall out for his son to come into a government where 
widows and orphans, in part not distantly related to 
the royal hou'se, would cry vengeance upon him as 
the author of their woes." All appeals were in vain. 
The implacable king would have his revenge. The 
lords, and many of their alleged accomplices, were 
imprisoned and subjected to heavy penalties. 
Death of The king died in the castle of Stockholm on 
King John. t he 17th of November, 1592, in the fifty-fifth 
year of his age. During the last year of his life he suf- 
fered the penalty that falls on tyrants, of a dread and 



228 The Reformation in Sweden. 

suspicion of all around him. There is nothing in his 
character to admire. He was learned, indeed, and pos- 
sessed of more talent than ordinarily belongs to kings; 
but he was mean, suspicious, jealous, cruel, negligent, 
indolent, and profuse. Honest History must write 
over his grave the simple epitaph: "A mea?i man and a 
bad king!' 



CHAPTER XL 

CHARLES AND SIGISMUND. 

WE no sooner enter upon the story of what is 
called the reign of King Sigismund in Swe- 
den, than we are at once ushered into a scene of 
conflict which arose from the struggle of the two 
systems of Romanism and Protestantism for suprem- 
acy. As mutual toleration was at that time impos- 
sible, perpetual collision was inevitable between a 
king whose conscience constrained him to force Ro- 
manism upon his subjects, and a Protestant people 
equally resolute and conscientious in their resistance 
to such an attempt. If John was able to weaken the 
foundation of the institutions of Sweden based on 
the Reformation, much more aggressive and destruc- 
tive measures might be anticipated from a king so 
devoted to the Papacy and the Jesuits, that even 
John, in his own temporary surrender to Rome, felt 
that his son went too far, and advised him to be 
aware of those Fathers who were accustomed to keep 
one foot in the pulpit and the other in the council 
room. 
„ ... - Charles had in fact conducted the govern- 

Positwn of & 

Charles in ment of Sweden for the last two years of 

Sweden. K[ng j ohn > s rdgn> As the ]dng had made 

no definite arrangements for the administration of the 



230 The Reformation in Sweden. 

kingdom after his death, it was natural that it should 
remain with Charles. The duke advised King Sigis- 
mund of his father's death, and consulted him upon 
the measures to be taken for carrying on the war with 
Russia. The six counselors deprived and imprisoned 
by John, were pardoned and recalled — a measure that 
was agreeable to the king. He also set at liberty all 
persons who were confined on account of the Liturgy, 
or for political causes. A letter soon came from the 
king confirming Charles in the government, until he 
should be able to visit Sweden. 

So far, on the surface, all was well. But the politic 
and able duke was aware that already intrigues were 
going on in Finland and elsewhere in behalf of the 
Papacy. He therefore entered into a compact with 
the council that they should obey him in everything 
which the interests of religion and the independence 
of the kingdom demanded — but without prejudice to 
their fealty to the king. Both Charles and his council 
could consistently make this reservation of fealty to 
the king because they did not hold that this fealty 
required them to acquiesce in the overthrow of the 
legally established Protestantism and independence 
of the country. King Sigismund of course saw what 
was the animus and meaning of this language, and 
was accustomed to call it Charles's bird-net. The 
duke assured the council that he would engage in no 
important affairs without their advice and consent. 
That this pledge of obedience, saving the preroga- 
tives of the king, might sometimes carry the council 
further than they desired to go, soon appeared. The 
clergy of Stockholm pressed for the calling of a synod, 
promised by King John in 1590, for the adjustment of 
religious disputes. The council thought that the mat- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 231 

ter should be adjusted by a joint commission of their 
own body and of the clergy. But Charles well knew 
that in so small a body reactionary influences would 
be more likely to prevail than in a large assembly. 
He therefore demanded that there should be a general 
Diet of the kingdom; and he carried his point. King 
Gustavus had secured Protestantism and freedom for 
Sweden, and these must at all hazards and sacrifices 
be preserved. He declared — and the statement must 
have been most offensive to Sigismund — that he only 
could be regarded as the true hereditary king of 
Sweden who preserved them unimpaired. They had 
now a king whose conscience was directed by the 
Pope; they should therefore renew their loyalty to 
and declare in unmistakable words and acts their pur- 
pose to defend and secure, the hard-won, but inestim- 
able blessings, obtained and transmitted to them by 
the great Gustavus. It was under the influence of 
this bold and animating manifesto that the Diet met 
in Upsala, on the 25th of February, 1593. 
The Diet of Deputies from every part of Sweden except 
Upsala. Finland come to the Diet. Finland was 

under the government of a partisan of Sigismund. It was 
for Sweden an unusually large assembly. There were 
present the duke with his council, four bishops, above 
three hundred clergy, many of the nobles and repre- 
sentatives of the burgesses and peasants. A very 
enthusiastic and resolute spirit prevailed. Nicholaus 
Bothniensis, Professor of Theology at Upsala, although 
a young man, was elected speaker. This was a mani- 
festation of homage to the steadfastness with which 
the Upsala professors had resisted the Liturgy; and it 
was a plain sign of the spirit that animated the Diet. 
They decreed that the Scriptures were the sole rule of 



232 The Reformation in Sweden. 

faith; and they considered and sanctioned all the arti- 
cles of the unmutilated Augsburg Confession. There- 
upon Peter Jonson, recently consecrated Bishop of 
Strengness, rose and inquired whether all present 
assented to and would defend these articles of faith, 
and abide by them even if called upon to suffer for it. 
All replied that they pledged all they had in this 
world, goods and life, in their defense. Then the 
speaker exclaimed, " Then is Sweden become one man, 
and all of us have one God." In view of the persecu- 
tions which they had suffered under John, and those 
much more severe which Sigismund, if he should obtain 
ascendency, would inflict, the spectacle of this repre- 
sentation of a nation, and not of an ecclesiastical synod 
alone, entering into such a religious compact, is a truly 
noble one. The event proved that, on the part of the 
great majority of its members, it was a compact sin- 
cerely entered into, and faithfully maintained. 

The changes in church ceremonies and doctrines 
which had been introduced under the former reign 
were abolished. Luther's Catechism was adopted as 
the groundwork of religious instruction and Laurence 
Peterson's manual the formulary of divine service. 
The bishops who had supported the Liturgy were 
now the first and most earnest to renounce it. They 
requested of the Council of State the return of their 
written engagements to support the Liturgy. Some of 
the council promised it; but Charles, well knowing 
Episcopal pliancy, took care that they should be pre- 
served in the archives of the Chancery. Several of the 
lords addressed earnest exhortations to the clergy to 
stand firm hereafter on their privileges, and to be faith- 
ful to their pledges. They complained that John had 
forced into the ministry as his pliant agents in support 



The Reformation in Sweden. 233 

of his Liturgy, not only unlearned men, but often mar- 
riage breakers, thieves, perjurers, homicides, tipplers, 
and leaders of vicious lives; and that only those who 
supported the Liturgy were advanced to high benefices 
in the Church, and that such men had been thrust into 
the Episcopate by the arbitrary will of the king, with- 
out a canonical election by the clergy. They declared 
therefore that if the Liturgy were not abolished before 
the arrival of King Sigismund, the kingdom would be 
in the condition of one who should attempt to carry a 
light in a violent storm. All these proceedings leave 
an impression that the nobility and commons had been 
more faithful, and were now more in earnest in main- 
taining the Protestant faith than the clergy. 
„ ... - Charles took no part in the deliberations of 

Fosition of £ 

Charles in the diet. But, of course, his influence in it 
the Diet. mus t have been great. There seems to have 
been no less moderation than firmness in their proceed- 
ings. No one was proscribed for having acquiesced 
in the Liturgy. Only one minister, John Paulson of 
Stockholm, was deprived. He had been so factious 
and violent that King John himself had suspended 
him. Charles subscribed the decrees of the Diet, and 
did not disguise his disgust at the council for not 
having declared themselves long before. He was in- 
deed inclined to, although there is no proof that he 
had as yet adopted, the tenets of the Reformed Church. 
His first wife was a sister of the Elector Palatine; and 
Charles was devoted to her and very friendly with all 
her family. And now the bishops who had subscribed 
to and enforced the Liturgy, in their new-born zeal 
for pure Lutheranism, and probably with a view to re- 
buke the rumored sacramentarian views of Charles, were 
very earnest to secure decrees against Zvvinglians and 



234 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Calvinists as heretics. The speaker, no doubt discern- 
ing the object of the bishops, refused to put the mo- 
tion. But they persisted and carried it, and secured the 
assent of Charles which was given in phrases more ener- 
getic than choice. Charles was very angry at what he re- 
garded as a personal rebuke. In a confidential letter to 
the archbishop and professors of Upsala, he afterwards 
declared: ''We are now defamed by the clergy as if 
we countenanced the doctrine of Calvin and Zwingle. 
But we will profess ourselves bound to no man's per- 
son, Christ excepted, neither Luther, Calvin, or Zwin- 
gle, but to God's Word alone." His fault, so it would 
be regarded by the more intolerant clergy, was, not 
that he manifested any opposition to, or any want of 
reverence for, Luther, but that he did not sufficiently 
hate Calvin and Zwingle. 
T J , The proceedings of the Diet of Upsala were 

Importance i 

of the Diet not only most memorable in the history of 
of upsala. s wec [ en> but of immense moment to the cause 
of Protestantism in Europe. The Church of Sweden cel- 
ebrates the anniversary of this diet every century with 
the same enthusiasm with which Germany celebrates 
the birthday of Luther. It secured, after further strug- 
gles, the Reformation in Sweden, and, through Gusta- 
vus Adolphus, rescued it from extinction in Germany 
and other countries. For many years a sermon was 
preached in all the churches in commemoration of the 
Sunday after the 19th of February, 1592, on which day 
Sigismund was compelled to acknowledge the Acts of 
the Diet of Upsala. All the sermons were preached 
from the same text — a text which reminded the peo- 
ple of the fact that they had been, and could continue 
to be, prosperous and blessed only as they were faith- 
ful to God and to his truth. The text of these sermons 



The Reformation in Sweden. 235 

was the Second of Chronicles xv. I, 2: "And the Spirit 
of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded: And he 
went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, 
Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord is with 
you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will 
be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will for- 
sake you." 

Proceedings The proceedings of the Polish Diet on the 
in Poland. question of King Sigismund's visit and rela- 
tion to Sweden, was marked by even more than the 
usual violence of Polish assemblies. At length it was 
agreed that Sigismund should be provided with means 
to visit his kingdom of Sweden, on the condition that 
he should make a satisfactory arrangement of the dis- 
pute between the two kingdoms in reference to Estho- 
nia. Olaf Swerkerson, an intermediary between Charles 
and Sigismund, assured the former that the king would 
uphold the laws, liberties, and rights of his native land; 
and that he would show neither affection nor hatred to 
any man on account of his religion; but that he could 
not and would not sanction the decrees of Upsala passed 
during his absence. 

But these general assurances were not satisfactory 
to the Swedes. They desired from Sigismund before 
he should leave Poland more explicit and favorable 
declarations, confirmed by guarantee, upon which they 
could rely. Accordingly, Thure Bielke, a man per- 
sonally agreeable to Sigismund, was sent to Poland 
with a warrant in which the demands and expectations 
of Sweden were detailed, together with a copy of the 
Acts of the Diet of Upsala. These documents were 
ordered to be read in all the churches of the kingdom, 
in order to keep the heart of the people up to their 
duty in the crisis that was impending. Two eminent 



236 The Reformation in Sweden. 

nobles, Nicholas Bielke and Eric Sparre. were sent with 
a fleet to Dantzic to meet the king and escort him into 
Sweden. 

But sinister rumors reached Sweden before the ar- 
rival of the king. It was reported that a Papal Legate 
had arrived at Warsaw, with a command from the Pope 
that he should restore the Church in his hereditary do- 
minions, and that he had brought a subsidy in money 
for the undertaking; that the imperial envoy used the 
same language; and that the Legate was to follow Sig- 
ismund to Sweden and crown him there, in violation 
of the compact between the two kingdoms: that Sigis- 
mund, in the course of his journey, had laid an inter- 
dict on the Evangelical Churches of Thorn and Elbing; 
and that a fear of a similar proceeding at Dantzic had 
led to popular tumults in that city. These rumors cre- 
ated much apprehension in the kingdom. Added to 
these causes of disquiet was the attitude of the resolute 
and turbulent governor of the important province of 
Finland, Clas Fleming. The duke wrote to him that 
he should admit no man into the castle of Abo without 
an order from him and the Council of State. Fleming 
replied that he had but one master in his government, 
and that was King Sigismund. In a letter to Poland 
he subscribed his name with additions, in which he 
boldly announced his defiance of Charles and his de- 
termined loyalty to the king: " Clas Fleming, free 
baron of Wilk, Marshal, High Admiral, and General, 
who has now too many rulers, though he guides him- 
self by only one, who is called King Sigismund. Come, 
my mates, to command me too, and see if I do not 
knock them on the head." 



The Reformation in Sweden. 237 

j . , Notwithstanding the unsatisfactory nature of 
Sigismund the preliminary proceedings between Charles 
in Sweden. anc j ^e king, the latter embarked on the 
fleet sent from Finland to Dantzic and landed in Stock- 
holm on the 30th of September, 1593. Charles took 
his stand on the castle bridge to receive the king. 
The newly-elected archbishop, Abraham Angerman, 
who had been persecuted by John because of his de- 
termined opposition to the Liturgy, was appointed to 
welcome the king. This arrangement, significant of 
Charles's resolute purpose to keep Protestantism in the 
foreground, was very offensive to Sigismund and to the 
Legate, Malaspina. The king wrote complaining of it 
to Charles: " It is singular that Master Abraham, who 
had fallen into disgrace with our late father, should 
now be the person to receive us in the name of all the 
clergy." After an outburst of indignation against Clas 
Fleming, addressed to the king, and with a stern and 
independent bearing towards him, which clearly inti- 
mated his distrust, and gave warning that he was not 
to be intimidated or won, Charles retired to his princi- 
pality and committed to the council the business of 
negotiation with the king. 

Immediately collisions and disagreements occurred. 
Sigismund would not confirm the Acts of the Synod of 
Upsala, nor would he accept the new archbishop. The 
Jesuits and the clergy of Stockholm began to preach 
against each other. The king demanded the transfer 
of a church in a former monastery of Franciscans to 
the Catholics, and enforced a burial there with the Catho- 
lic ritual. This occasioned a conflict, and the shedding 
of blood in the church itself. The king sullenly kept 
aloof from the Swedish counselors, and surrounded 
himself with Roman partisans, and refused to receive 



238 The Reformation in Sweden. 

a deputation of the Protestant clergy. In reply to the 
council, who pressed upon him certain pledges previous 
to his coronation, he haughtily expressed his surprise 
at their presumption, and reminded them of the differ- 
ence between an hereditary and an elective monarchy. 
As he succeeded to a kingdom the prevailing religion 
of which was different from his own, he would leave 
those who professed it unmolested; but he would insist 
that those subjects which were of his faith should have 
equal privileges with the majority. 

Second Diet It was in this spirit of mutual exasperation 
of upsaia. that both parties repaired to Upsala, where 
the States were assembled to celebrate at once the en- 
tombment of John and the coronation of Sigismund. 
The obsequies of John were celebrated with great pomp; 
but the Papal Legate was turned out of the procession, 
and the Jesuits forbidden to enter the church on the 
penalty of death. Charles took no part in the solem- 
nity; but he was there with three thousand men, foot 
and horse, whom he quartered on his hereditary pos- 
sessions in the neighborhood. He said to the Estates 
— " I part not from you; if Sigismund will be your king 
he must fulfill your requests." He told the king that 
no coronation should be permitted until the demands 
and pledges required were given. When he proceeded 
to the castle to make this announcement in person to 
the king; he was accompanied by the council and no- 
bility, and vast crowds of the applauding people. The 
order of the peasants in the diet offered Charles the 
crown; but he sternly commanded them to be silent. 
It was a great crisis, and it was evident that the reso- 
lute and subtle Charles was equal to it. 

Affairs seemed to be in what, in modern phrase, 
would be called a dead-lock. The court labored to 



The Reformation in Sweden. 239 

bribe and disunite the Estates. Rumors were current, 
and were afterwards confirmed, that an attempt was to 
be made upon the life of Charles; but no charge was 
made then or since that Sigismund was privy to the 
design. Charles redoubled his vigilance and increased 
his military force. In this period of painful suspense a 
most impressive scene took place in the diet. The 
whole assembly fell upon their knees and united in 
prayer; and in that attitude vowed and pledged them- 
selves to each other, at every hazard and every cost, to 
uphold the decrees of the former Diet of Upsala. Un- 
der the impulse of that enthusiastic proceeding they 
were ready to enact, as they did, very decided meas- 
ures. They decreed that no Catholic should henceforth 
be permitted to hold a civil office in Sweden. Who- 
ever should embrace the Catholic faith, or permit his 
children to be educated therein, should forfeit the rights 
of citizenship; Catholics might reside in the kingdom 
if they conducted themselves peaceably; but no Catho- 
lic service should be performed except in the king's 
chapel. This was all that the king could obtain. And 
when the duke, wearied with the delays and irritated 
at the intrigues of the king, peremptorily announced 
to him that unless he should give a decisive answer in 
twenty-four hours, he would dissolve the diet and send 
its members home, he was obliged to yield. We may 
be sure that it was a bitter necessity; and that there 
could have been no sincerity in his extorted assent. 
The Te Deum was sung by the States as upon occasions 
of great military victories. The new archbishop was 
confirmed by the king. But to another bishop — the 
bishop of Westeras — was assigned the service of coron- 
ation. The Jesuits were not permitted to be present. 
When the king took the oath he allowed his hand to 



240 The Reformation in Sweden. 

drop; but Charles reminded him that he must hold 
it upright until the conclusion of the pledge; and the 
king obeyed. One would have supposed that these 
events — this demonstration of the substantial unity of 
the people in the Protestant faith, and of their firm 
purpose to maintain it, and this taste of the quality of 
his uncle Charles — would have sufficed to convince the 
young king that his attempt to reintroduce Romanism 
into Sweden could not possibly succeed. 
TJ ™ a The story of the king's evasion and viola- 
faithless to lation of the solemn pledges which he made 
his Pledges. a ^ ^ corona tion is found in manuscript, 
among the papers of Adolphus Gustavus. No one 
could be better informed on the subject than he; and 
he has told the story, considering the temptations to 
violent and indignant denunciations which he must 
have experienced, with commendable moderation. 

" Sigismund was slow in confirming all lay and 
clerical privileges; and as he promised with hesitancy, 
so he kept to it no longer than between Upsala and 
Stockholm. He was hardly arrived at the capital, 
when he made the Count Eric Brahe (a Catholic) to 
be governor there, which was one of the highest offices 
in the kingdom. Malaspina, the evil thorn that stuck 
in the king's foot, made him halt sorely in his prom- 
ises. Popish schools and Popish churches were erected; 
around Stockholm divine service was interrupted by 
disturbances; men were obliged to go armed to the 
church, complaint thereof was made to the king, but 
little good was thereby effected. Moreover the king's 
counselors found it good to fish in troubled waters. 
Sweden must be stirred up to civil discords that one 
heretic might be extirpated by another. The king 
hastened to Poland. Here all was to remain in dis- 






The Reformation in Sweden. 241 

order and confusion, no one bound to obey another, 
that the more speedily among so many magnates (for 
every province had its lieutenants), mischiefs might 
spring up. But as the majesty of the realm of Sweden 
was by God's blessing succored and defended to this 
day, so that it was never transferred to another mon- 
archy, but by Swedish valor was preserved to this 
country and nation, so too were now found men who 
would not allow this design of the king to be effected. 
The council which was in Stockholm protested against 
him, that it was not competent for him to remove the 
kingly government out of the land; he should appoint 
a government within the realm who should manage 
its affairs. They also gave Charles, who lay sick at 
Nycoping, to understand this. The king indeed made 
out, though without good will, a warrant wherein with 
few words my father was empowered to manage the 
administration, with the council of state; but the lieu- 
tenants of the provinces were enjoined to pay this 
government no regard. Thus they did whatever they 
wished. To the people, who (in Sweden especially) 
were accustomed to law and justice, it appeared strange 
that they were treated so ill by the lieutenants; and as 
the people are beside prone to complain, so when they 
found themselves oppressed they ran in crowds to 
Stockholm where they were wont to find redress. 
The government would gladly have had from Sigis- 
mund a better warrant and fuller instructions, after 
which they might have ruled the people and realm 
for the king's behoof, which also while the king was 
in Stockholm was sufficiently promised; yet it was 
deferred from day to day, until the king was ready 
to sail, and no other could be obtained, whence all 
the disorder afterwards flowed." 



242 The Reformation in Sweden. 

It was the policy of Sigismund to leave Swe- 

The Kins;- . / " . . , . 

dom after deji in such an unsettled state that his m- 
Sigismund's tervention might become necessary to restore 

Departure. . 111 • 1 1 

order; and that he might thus govern it 
according to his will, and reintroduce Romanism. 
When he found however that the nobility could not 
be won to sanction such a policy, in order to diminish 
the power of Charles he adopted the system that had 
prevailed under the settlement of Calmar, when Swe- 
den was subject to the kings of Denmark. Under that 
system the most eminent of the nobles were appointed 
to administer the different provinces, and they exercised 
so much power in their separate principalities that they 
had reduced the office of guardian, or regent, or admin- 
istrator, as he was variously called, to a position of com- 
parative powerlessness. Charles, the lawful heir of 
the throne, inheriting the principles and guided by the 
policy of Gustavus, would by no means be contented 
with such a position. But inasmuch as the council 
approved this system — a system in which their own 
power and consequence would be enhanced — Charles 
was obliged to submit to it for the present, under em- 
phatic protests, and with distinct assertion of his su- 
preme power, under Sigismund, whom he represented, 
both as the heir to the throne and the regent of the 
kingdom. This was in fact, and it was so regarded, 
a notice to these lieutenants of the provinces that he 
should not allow himself to be a figurehead of the 
kingdom; but that he should assume and exercise 
supreme authority. The cunning device of Sigismund 
to limit the power of Charles by this arrangement, 
and the unwise acquiescence in it by the council, was 
the cause of the innumerable embarrassments in the 
administration of the kingdom to which Charles was 



The Reformation in Sweden. 243 

subjected during all the years previous to his own 
elevation to the throne. 

Meeting of After an almost uninterrupted war with Rus- 
the Estates. s { a f or twenty-six years peace was at length 
concluded, 1595, with that kingdom. But the turbu- 
lent Clas Fleming of Finland refused to acquiesce in 
some of the conditions of the treaty which referred to 
that province, and still prosecuted the war. This led 
to a convocation of the Estates. The duke had long 
desired that they should be convened, under the convic- 
tion that- he would be able to induce the three orders of 
the knights and clergy and peasants to limit the powers 
of the lieutenants of the provinces; but he had failed to 
secure the assent of the Council. But now a crisis oc- 
curred — the virtual revolt of a province, whose con- 
tinued war with Russia threatened to nullify the treaty 
of peace — which made it an obvious necessity that a 
diet should assemble. 

But still the Council refused to join him in the sum- 
mons, unless they were directed to do so by the king. 
The Council and the Estates were positively forbidden 
to assemble by the king. Charles in this crisis exhib- 
ited the boldness and the dominating power of his 
character over those with whom he had to deal. He 
presented the summons to them and told them per- 
emptorily that they must sign it. "You must sign 
the letters, and betake yourself thither too, or I shall 
show you another way." He reminded them of Engle- 
bert the Dalesman, a peasant's son, but who as admin- 
istrator constrained the. council of the realm. " I am a 
king's son," he said, " and prince hereditary of this 
monarchy. After my will ye shall do, and if ye follow 
not after with a good heart, I will have you brought 
hither in bonds." They were compelled to subscribe; 



244 The Reformation in Sweden. 

but they still hoped that by the aid of the high no- 
bility they could prevent any great change in their 
own privileges, or in those of the lieutenants of the 
provinces. 

When the Estates assembled at Soderkceping the 
duke took the same high tone with them as he had taken 
with the Council. It was only under a sense of duty to 
the country and to himself, as the lawful heir of the 
crown, that he had accepted the office of administrator 
of the kingdom. But as long as he held the office, he 
insisted upon possessing the powers necessary to its 
discharge. If the conditions contained in the king's 
oath at his coronation were not to be fulfilled, and if 
Clas Fleming and other rebellious lords were not to 
be punished, he would no longer occupy the position 
of administrator. And the Estates were now to decide 
whether these two things were to be done. The stat- 
ute of Soderkceping, drawn up under the direction of 
Charles, contained the following articles, which con- 
stitute a declaration of absolute disobedience and de- 
fiance of the king; and were unanimously subscribed by 
the Diet. No doubt some of the subscriptions were 
not ex animo. The purport of the statute was as fol- 
lows: That no other doctrine than that of the Augs- 
burg Confession should be allowed in Sweden; that 
even the natives of a different religion should be in- 
capable of holding any office in the kingdom; that the 
Popish priests should leave the country in six weeks; 
that the Romish worship should be entirely abolished 
not only at Stockholm, but at Protingsholm and Wad- 
stena; that the nuns of the last place should be ex- 
pelled; that for the future if any Swedes embraced any 
other religion than the Protestant or educated their 
children in any other profession, whether in Sweden or 



The Reformation in Sweden. 245 

elsewhere, they should be incapable of hereditary suc- 
cession, their estates should be possessed by their near- 
est relations, and themselves banished from Sweden for 
ever. Those who had professed' the Roman religion 
before the coronation of King Sigismund were allowed 
to remain in Sweden, though not to make any public 
profession of that religion, or to join in its worship, or 
in the celebration of any of its services. 

To these decisive articles concerning religion, oth- 
ers relating to the duke's civil power, which were 
scarcely less stringent, were added. The duke should 
be Governor of Sweden, and in conjunction with the 
council administer all its affairs .in the absence of the 
king; no suit or process which belonged to Sweden 
should be entered in Poland before King Sigismund; 
the right which every one had of appealing to the king 
could be exercised only when his majesty was present 
in Sweden; his majesty's orders sent from Poland to 
Sweden could not be published nor put in execution, 
till they were read and approved by Charles and his 
council. In the case of appointments which were in- 
vested in the king, the nomination should lie with the 
duke and the council. 

It is obvious that these sweeping provisions abso- 
lutely excluded King Sigismund from the exercise of 
all power in Sweden except when he was personally in 
the kingdom. If we imagine such powers vested in the 
viceroy and council of Ireland, we shall see to what a 
nullity they would reduce the queen. They are to be 
vindicated only on the ground — and on that ground 
they are to be vindicated and applauded — of national 
self-preservation. 

In order to give the utmost impressiveness to the 
assent of the Estates to these Articles, Chlares deter- 



246 The Reformation in Sweden. 

mined to hold what was technically called " a Bench 
of Majesty." This "Bench of Majesty" was an ele- 
vated platform in the open air, immediately before 
which the Estates were gathered, and around which 
vast multitudes of the people thronged. After an ad- 
dress to the Estates Charles addressed himself immedi- 
ately to the people, closing thus: " After what we, 
honorable and good men, both by means of the an- 
swers which ye gave us, on the points which were 
propounded to you, have come to a clear resolution, 
here therefore cometh my question, Whether ye mind 
to defend what here hath been done and decreed, and 
will stand to the same all for one and one for all, see- 
ing it is grounded upon the oath and assurance of the 
king, and nought hath been done save what is profit- 
able to his royal majesty and to our fatherland." Yet 
again he repeated the demand. With that the com- 
mon people answered, Yea, yea; yea gracious lord, and 
took the oath with uplifted hands, to hold by his 
princely grace all for one and one for all — which form 
of speech the prince was ever wont to use. Thereupon 
he turned to the councilors of state, the bishops and 
nobles, who stood by him upon the royal bench, and 
questioned them in these words: "And ye, what say 
ye to this ? Hear ye what these have sworn ? Will 
ye sever yourselves from them ? " The council of state 
answered in the name of the collective body of knights 
and nobles, and promised to his princely grace obedi- 
ence in all which should tend to the weal and profit 
of king and fatherland. But the prince raised his 
hand and said: " So swear that ye will obey me in that 
which I shall prescribe." Then the greatest number 
lifted their hands; but there were many who would 
not. Not from all, even in that position of command- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 247 

ing influence, could Charles obtain the pledge that they 
would obey him in all that he should prescribe. But 
the whole proceeding — the calling of the diet against 
the prohibition of the king and the refusal at first 
of the council — the thoroughness of its proceedings 
and the method of securing the adherence to both of 
the Estates and the people — exhibit the extraordinary 
resolution and ability of the duke. If at either of the 
two diets of Upsala, or at this, Charles had faltered, 
Protestantism would have been extinguished in Swe- 
den, as, a century later, it was extinguished in Austria 
and Bohemia. 

It would be an interesting topic for a monograph, 
by a competent historian — that of showing in how 
many instances the fate of nations, for centuries of 
weal or wo, has hung suspended on the fidelity and 
firmness, or the treachery and weakness, of a single 
mind. In such a treatise the history of Charles IX. 
would occupy a conspicuous and honorable position. 



CHAPTER XII. 

FROM THE MEETING OF THE DIET OF SODERKCEPING, 
SEPT. 30, 1596, TO THE CLOSE OF THE REIGN OF 
CHARLES IX., OCT. 30, l6ll. 

WE enter at this point into a new series of strug- 
gles and entanglements on the part of Charles, 
which it would seem that no one but a true inheritor 
of the stalwart body and the big brain and the indom- 
itable resolution of the great Gustavus could for a series 
of years have endured. 

Enforcement The statutes of Soderkceping were promul- 
of the Ecde- gated by Charles in Swedish and German and 

siasticalPro- Z. . _,, - . r i r* % ■■%• r> 1 

visions of the Latin. The worship of the Catholics at Stock- 
Diet. holm, Drottningholm, and Wadstena, was in- 

terdicted and the priests were banished. The convent 
at the latter place, the most famous in the kingdom, 
was suppressed. A general church inquest for the sup- 
pression of Popery throughout the kingdom was estab- 
lished. The new archbishop, Abraham, drove on this 
measure throughout the kingdom with great severity; 
but no lives were taken on account of religion. The 
minister of the church of Stockholm, Eric Schepper, 
exhibited equal zeal. They were both violent, injudi- 
cious and unstable men; and when they found that they 
could not direct and overrule Charles they soon grew 
cool in carrying out the objects which they first advo- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 249 

cated and pressed with undue heat. Schepper assumed 
to criticise and harshly censure some measures of the 
government which had no reference to religious inter- 
ests. The archbishop protected Schepper; but his in- 
tervention did not prevent Charles's deposition of him 
from his office. To the archbishop he wrote, "We will 
maintain the right which our father of happy memory 
acquired, that it shall appertain to the magistrate to 
suspend a clergyman upon well-grounded cause from 
the exercise of his office; else might we as gladly sit 
under the Pope as under the Archbishop and Chapter 
of Upsala." The duke charged upon the archbishop 
that he demeaned himself more like an executioner 
than a paternal prelate. 

It was a matter of course that the proceed- 
from a King in g s of the Diet of Soderkceping should be 
Sigismund very offensive to King Sigismund. He sent 

an embassy of six of his highest nobles to 
remonstrate against their execution. To their demand 
that these enactments should be rescinded Duke Charles 
gave a very decided refusal. These embassadors, how- 
ever, had an opportunity to tamper with the members 
of his council, whose assent to the summons and the 
decrees of the Diet of Soderkceping we have seen were 
extorted by the firm measures of the duke. All of the 
members of the council but one joined with the em- 
bassy in demanding a repeal of some of the measures 
of the late diet, which they had sanctioned only under 
intimidation. Charles had now reached a point where 
he seemed absolutely helpless. Civil war raged in Fin- 
land. The commander of the troops in that country 
refused to lead them by command of the duke, while 
he himself was thus in open disobedience to the king. 
No other path seemed open to him but to resign. He 



250 The Reformation in Sweden. 

would not continue in office on condition of reversing, 
or sanctioning the reversal of, the statutes of the Diet 
of Soderkceping. Without this reversal, in obedience 
to the king, he could not now secure the co-operation 
of his council, or enforce the obedience of the leaders of 
the troops. He resolved to resign. But the form in 
which his resignation was offered leads us to infer that 
he foresaw that an armed conflict in defense of Protes- 
tantism, which was now identified with the cause of 
the old liberties of Sweden, was inevitable, and could 
no longer be delayed. 

Th Duk When the duke announced that he would 
Resigns the lay down the government, he coupled with 
Government. the annou ncement the declaration that as 
he had received it from the Estates, into their hands 
alone should it be deposited. He accordingly con- 
vened a new diet to be held in February of the follow- 
ing year in Arboga. Meantime, on the 13th of Janu- 
ary, 1597, came Sigismund's letter to the Estates of the 
realm to the effect that he had learned from his envoys, 
on their return, that the duke would not conform to his 
directions: and that therefore the king transferred the 
government of the country to the council. On the 
25th day of the same month Charles wrote to the king 
that the envoys had not mentioned to him that he had 
already deprived him of the government. He then en- 
tered into a full vindication of all his proceedings as 
those which were demanded by loyalty to the will of 
his royal father Gustavus, and the principles upon 
which he had established the government. He con- 
cluded with the statement that he had convened the 
diet at Arboga; and with a declaration, which was in 
effect an announcement, that whether that coming 
diet should accept or decline to receive his resigna- 



The Reformation in Sweden. 251 

tion, he would still resist the efforts of the king to 
overthrow the decrees of Soderkceping and to admin- 
ister the government in the interests of Romanism. 
The king could not misapprehend the meaning of such 
a sentence as this: "We would not deal underhand, but 
would have your majesty plainly informed and warned 
that if the government of this realm be not otherwise 
disposed and arranged (i. e., otherwise than as you 
propose) we will not be subject to such a government, 
but will use those means and expedients which may 
help for the alleviation of our own lot and that of the 
country." 

Diet of Ar- The conduct of Charles at first at Arboga 
b °g a - seems to sanction the conjecture which I 

have made that he hoped that the diet would not ac- 
cept his resignation. Finding that no one raised a 
voice to dissuade him at the opening of the diet, from 
resigning the regency, he retired to his near palace of 
Gripsholm, as if for the purpose of taking no part in 
its proceedings. But on reflecting upon the anarchy 
that might ensue if he continued in that resolution, 
he stifled his indignation and returned. The diet as- 
sembled at the designated time, notwithstanding the 
prohibition of the king and the protest of the council. 
One only of the lords of the council, Count Axel 
Oxenstiern, could be induced to attend; and but a 
small sprinkling of the nobility were present. Even 
the hitherto too zealous archbishop was accused of 
having secretly given in his allegiance to the king. 
To the appeals of Charles the representative peas- 
ants answered with enthusiasm, and brandished their 
clubs and axes in the face of the lords, declaring that 
they would defend Charles, against all enemies, so 
long as the blood was warm in their veins. The 



252 The Reformation in Sweden. 

statute that was passed was sent through all the 
country for signature. It contained a re-assertion of 
the statute of Soderkceping. Whoever opposed its 
provisions was to be put down by arms, as a public 
enemy; and the duke, who now, at the request of the 
diet, resumed the government, proceeded to the en- 
forcement of its decrees. Most of the counselors fled 
from the kingdom. Charles, with great promptitude, 
took possession of Elfsborg, Stegborg and Calmar, and 
passed over into Finland where his old foe Clas Flem- 
ing had lately died. There he made several noblemen 
prisoners; and a new envoy of the king to Stockholm 
saw some of them conducted to the scaffold. The die 
was now cast; the issue was made; civil war already 
was begun. It was a distinct issue between a king 
who was attempting, against his coronation oath and 
the fundamental laws of the kingdom, to introduce a 
religion which they had repudiated and which they 
abhorred; and a prince, an hereditary heir to the 
throne whose foundation principle he was bound to 
conserve, and at the head of a people, for whose rights 
and liberties he was under the most solemn obligation 
to contend. There- never was a clearer call of duty to 
self, to God, and to country, than that which was now 
made upon the duke. 

Sizismund's Upon hearing of these events the king raised 
return to an army of six thousand men and came to 
Sweden and took possession of Calmar. Even 
Stockholm declared for him. But Charles, at the head 
of the indomitable Dalesmen, who triumphantly bore 
the great Gustavus to the throne, prepared to meet 
the king in open fight. The presence of a foreign army 
in Sweden exasperated a large number of persons, who 
might otherwise have been neutral or friendly to the 



The Reformation in Sweden. 253 

king. At a first encounter the forces of the king 
gained some advantage. But in a second great battle, 
at Stangbridge in Linkoping, the king's forces were ut- 
terly defeated, with a loss of two thousand men killed 
and comparatively few wounded; and with but little 
loss on the part of the army of the duke. The king 
and the duke held a personal conference immediately 
after the battle. This was followed by the convention 
of Linkoping, by which the faithless Sigismund was al- 
lowed by Charles, even in that hour of victory, to be 
acknowledged king on the condition, again renewed, 
that he would govern the kingdom according to his 
coronation oath, and send back his foreign troops, and 
within four months convoke a diet. From the general 
amnesty that was proclaimed Charles insisted that the 
names of five of the counselors, who had fled to the 
king in Poland, should be excepted. These lords were 
delivered up to the duke. 

The ever-faithless king at once violated the provi- 
sions of the treaty of Linkoping by leaving a garrison 
of Polish troops at Calmar. By one of the articles of 
that treaty it was provided that the States should have 
the right to resist any violation of its provisions. Ac- 
cordingly, when it was known that Sigismund had left 
these Polish troops at Calmar, the Estates assembled 
at Jenkceping in the early part of 1599 and renounced 
their allegiance to Sigismund conditionally. At a 
new diet in July this condition was withdrawn, and 
it was added that if within six months Sigismund 
should not send his son Vladislaus to Sweden to be 
educated for the crown in the evangelic faith, his fam- 
ily should forfeit for ever its hereditary right to the 
Swedish throne. The duke was declared reigning 
prince hereditary of the realm. 



254 The Reformation in Sweden. 

This was the end of Sigismund's power even in name 
in his hereditary kingdom. 

Sin larPo According to the usual course of history it 
sition of was to be expected that Charles would mount 
Charles. the throne> The Estates had declared that 
Sigismund and his heirs had for ever forfeited their 
hereditary right. Charles was the next acknowledged 
and undisputed heir. He had for a long time, during 
the absence of the king, administered the government; 
and now that the king's authority was disowned, his 
government of the kingdom with the full royal power 
would be continuous — uninterrupted and unshared. 
That he did not at once enter upon the office that 
was open to him, and did not subsequently, for a long 
time, accept it when it was pressed upon him, was not 
due to embarrassments and obstacles without, but rather 
to scruples of conscience which we cannot but regard 
as real. For his difficulties were increased by the 
singular and anomalous position which he occupied; 
and the peaceful settlement of the kingdom delayed 
by his persistent hesitation. While there was in the 
character of Charles a severity which subsequently, in 
the struggle with manifold treacheries, sometimes har- 
dened into cruelty, there was at the same time a high 
conscientiousness, and a power of stern self-repression, 
and a vigorous will to follow out his convictions of 
duty, which recall the best specimens of heroic Puri- 
tanism. His religion was free from fanaticism, and 
was guided far more by moral than emotional forces. 
And along with this stern conscientiousness he had 
a lofty view of the prerogatives and rights of the house 
of Vasa, and would contend for their conservation, even 
when that contention would harm rather than help his 
personal interests. It is impossible to read the record 



The Reformation in Sweden. 255 

of the career of Charles from this period with an un- 
derstanding - of its guiding" principles and motives, ex- 
cept upon the view which I have here presented — a 
view which Geijer has thus admirably explained and 
expanded. 

"The common responsibility which Gustavus had im- 
posed upon his sons was in truth Charles's political re- 
ligion. Throughout his life he fought for the Swedish 
crown, seemingly against his own interest and that of his 
children; and he was himself, amid these contrarieties, 
torn by internal strife. With one hand battling against 
Sigismund, and all the dangers which with him threat- 
ened the country, with the other he struggled inex- 
orably with the factions which had dared to beleaguer 
the throne of Gustavus Vasa. As the son of Gustavus, 
and from his whole position, he could not misappreci- 
ate the value of power bestowed by the voice of the 
people. But on the same voice his whole family rested 
their hereditary right. Against Sigismund, an outcast 
by religion from the heritage of the father of his line, 
Charles enforced the resolution of the Estates. But 
there remained a child whose weak arm, outstretched 
between him and the throne, seems to have excited in 
him deeper disquietude. Duke John, Sigismund's half- 
brother, was, by the hereditary settlement, his claim 
being unforfeited, next heir to the throne. Not only 
was the life of this child held sacred by a hand other- 
wise so blood-stained, but Charles fulfilled towards 
him all the duties of a near kinsman. He is still un- 
certain whether the young prince's renunciation of his 
pretensions, made at the age of fifteen, is valid; and 
closes by acknowledging in his testament John's su- 
perior right ' provided that the Estates of the realm 
shall in no wise depart from their enacted statutes.' 



2$6 The Reformation in Sweden. 

According to this Sweden was without a king at the 
death of Charles, and first received one in Gustavus 
Adolphus by a new election of the Estates." 

By the light of this explanation of the singular 
attitude of Charles's mind, we can comprehend some 
of his proceedings after the deposition of Sigismund 
which would be otherwise unintelligible. On the one 
hand we cannot fail to respect the personal self-abne- 
gation with which, in obedience to what he almost 
alone regarded as a claim of right, he consented that 
the crown should pass from his own gifted son to one 
who had ceased to be a Swede, and had been educated 
in the faith the attempt to introduce which into Swe- 
den had convulsed the country for fifty years. On the 
other hand we wonder at the seeming want of consis- 
tency by which he adhered so fanatically to the prin- 
cipal of hereditary succession as to sacrifice his son's 
pretensions to those of his nephew, which, by the 
supreme authority of the State, had been forfeited; 
while he left the kingdom in such a state as to make 
it inevitable that his son should succeed, not by that 
right of hereditary succession to which he rendered 
such unusual homage, but by a new election of the 
people. These are singular weaknesses in a strong 
character which, although on the side of self-abnega- 
tion, we find it difficult to respect, because they laid 
his kingdom open to dangers, which all his life was 
passed in the struggle to forefend and overcome. 
„. ., TIT Sigismund's exasperation at the failure of 

Civil War. .° r 

his effort to coerce Sweden was extreme. 
He had enough partisans in the country, and espe- 
cially in Finland, to excite a civil war. A slanderous 
pamphlet was prepared against Charles, by the com- 
mand of Sigismund, and distributed through all the 



The Reformation in Sweden. 257 

courts of Europe. The mutual animosities of the two 
parties became greatly inflamed. The Dalecarlians and 
the adjacent provinces were leagued to resist and crush 
the partisans of the king. The lords of the council 
who had been surrendered to Charles were tried and 
executed. Many others were executed, and still more 
banished. And while the war in Livonia and Finland 
was in progress, in the conduct of which Charles ener- 
getically intervened, the crown was twice offered to 
him and rejected. The States indeed became impa- 
tient and angry with Charles because of this persistent 
refusal of the crown. At length, in 1604, when the 
civil war was ended, Charles accepted the crown after 
it had been offered, at his request, to Duke John, and 
had been declined on account of the conditions at- 
tached to its acceptance. 

Relation of We have already intimated that Charles had 
Charles to given some indications of his preference of 

the Clergy 

and the the Reformed to the Lutheran Church. His 
Church. relation to the clergy became unfriendly and 
continued to be so to the end of his reign. It must be 
confessed that there was not much in the character 
of the Lutheran clergy at that time to secure the re- 
spect of one of such rigid principles, and such straight- 
forward policy as Charles. Moreover, the Reformed 
system itself, in its general principles, was no doubt 
more congenial to his nature. " The perfecter of the 
Reformation in Sweden," says Geijer, "was not reck- 
oned an orthodox Lutheran." At the Diet of Linkce- 
ping, in 1600, a service-book prepared by him had been 
rejected by the clergy. But Charles, notwithstanding, 
introduced the new order of worship which he had 
proposed into his own household. It was charged 
that this service was Calvinistic; and the Archbishop, 



258 The Reformation in Sweden. 

Olaf Martinson wrote against it as such. It is curi- 
ous to find among its alleged Calvinistic points, the 
statement that heretics ought to be allowed Christian 
burial. In the year 1601 Charles published a collec- 
tion of Swedish psalms. He also composed and pub- 
lished a collection of Swedish and German hymns. 
In 1604 he issued a Swedish catechism, in v/hich he 
followed the Reformed catechism of Heidelberg. This 
publication, together with his effort to secure an 
amended translation of the Bible, caused no little 
commotion among the Swedish clergy. Controversies 
arose, in which Charles showed himself no mean po- 
lemic. * He contended against the decree of a Diet 
of Upsala, which had modified the article of the 
Augsburg Confession, that the Scriptures were the 
sole rule of faith. He also contended that sacraments 
were only confirmatory signs of grace, and did not in 
themselves impart forgiveness of sins. Hence he de- 
nied that the reception of the Sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper at the hour of death was necessary for salva- 
tion, although it might be a comfort and support; and 
he dwelt upon the anguish which was inflicted upon 
the dying, who could not obtain the sacrament, by 
this cruel dogma. He contended that only a condi- 
tional and not a positive absolution should be pro- 
nounced upon confession; and that the words should 
be inserted into the formula of absolution "in the 
name of God who alone forgiveth sins." He also 
advocated the use of reason and philosophy in the 
construction of a Christian theology. It is creditable 
to Charles, and in this we see an utter contrast to 
the policy of his brother John, that he made no at- 
tempt to force his new services and doctrines upon 
the diets and the people; and that the archbishop was 



The Reformation in Sweden. 259 

permitted to answer the royal theologian as an equal, 
without suffering any penalty or deprivation. The 
Lutheran system remained unmodified, and so con- 
tinues in Sweden; and it must be confessed that it has 
exhibited itself there as narrow and intolerant as in 
any part of Europe. It is less than twenty years since 
the profession of the Catholic faith and the exercise 
of the Catholic worship has been allowed in Sweden. 
Charles spent a large part of his life in the abortive 
attempt to unite the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. 
He did not adopt all the views of Calvin, and especially 
his most distinctive doctrine, the decrees of election 
and reprobation. Many conferences and disputations 
were held upon the subject. But all his efforts failed 
of making any impression upon the Lutheran clergy. 
The reign of Charles extended to the year 

Concluding ., „ . i . . 

Years of ion. During that period no new arrange- 
Charles' ments were made in ecclesiastical affairs. 
He devoted himself with earnest efforts to 
restore order and prosperity to the country; and his 
judicious and energetic measures for that object would 
have met with greater success, but for the wars in 
which he was involved with Denmark and with Rus- 
sia. It is, notwithstanding, one of the enigmas of his- 
tory, that, after so many years of strife and of national 
exhaustion which followed the death of Gustavus, a 
country so poor and sparsely settled should so soon 
afterwards develop the large resources and put forth 
the strength in the great Protestant struggle in Ger- 
many which has made the name of Gustavus Adolphus 
immortal. 



The End. 



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